COMPLETE FARMER 



AND 



RURAL ECONOMIST; 



I 



CONTAINIKG 



A COMPENDIOUS EPITOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BRANCHES 
OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ^CONOMY. 



^ 



BY THOMAS Gf^F E S SENDEN , 

EDITOR OP THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Agriculture is the art of arts : without it, man must be a savage, and the world a 

wilderness. 



SECOND EDITION. 
REVISED, IMPROVED, AND ENLARGED. 



BOSTON: 

RUSSELL, ODIOIINE & CO. 

GEORGE C. BARRETT, BOSTON ; GEORGE C. THORBORN, AND B. AND S. 
COLLINS, NEW YORK ; DESELYER, THOMAS, AND CO., FHILADELPHIA; 
REYNOLDS AND BATEHAM, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
AND THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES. 

1835. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, m the year 1B34, 

By Thomas G. Fessenden, 

m the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



BOSTON: 

STEREOTYPED BY SHEPARD, OLIVER AND CO. 

No. 3, Water Stxeet. 






<^ '^ i BOSTON: 

s Printed by Lewis and Penniman, 

' Bromfieli Street. 



PREFACE. 



In the following pages, the object of the writer is to give 
brief, but it is hoped perspicuous and practical sketches of 
some important improvements in modern husbandry. In 
attempting to carry this design into effect, it has been his 
intention to insert no matter which is merely conjectural or 
speculative ; to give place to nothing not worth the atten- 
tion of the person whose livelihood depends on his pursuits 
as a cultivator ; and who has neither time nor money to de- 
vote to such books as are expensive, voluminous, and foreign 
or remotely related to available improvements in husbandry. 

With this view, the author has collected and generally 
abridged from the sources which his occupation as editor of 
the New England Farmer has made it his duty as well as 
his pleasure to explore, the materials of the little work now 
submitted. He does not pretend to have taken a wide sur- 
vey of the field of husbandry, much less, in this tract, to have 
given a plan of the whole premises. But he hopes his ob- 
servations, though limited, may prove serviceable so far as 
they extend. Agriculture is the most extensive as well as 
the most useful of the sciences, and as an art may be com- 
pared to the ocean, in which every stream of improvement 
in the moral and physical condition of mankind pours its 
contribution. Still it is not necessary to circumnavigate the 
whole of this world of waters in order to make voyages of 
valuable discovery. We cannot dip an oar nor launch a 
skiff in or upon the bosom of this great deep, without find- 
ing something to reward our adventures. 



4 PREFACE. 

Agriculture, although the most ancient of the arts, not 
only coeval with, but in truth the sun from which emanated 
the dawn of civilization, is, nevertheless, the art in which 
the beneficial effects of modern improvement are most strik- 
ingly exemplified. Let us contrast its former with its pre- 
sent condition in Great Britain. 

According to English laws in force from the fifth to the 
eleventh century, * all the cattle of a village, though belong- 
ing to different owners, were pastured together in one herd, 
under the direction of one person, (with proper assistants,) 
whose oath in all disputes about the cattle was decisive. 
Their ploughs seem to have been very slight and inartificial ; 
for it was enacted that no man should undertake to guide a 
plough who could not make one ; and that the driver should 
make the ropes with which it was drawn of twisted willows. 
But slight as these ploughs were, it was usual for six or eight 
persons to form themselves into a society for fitting out one 
of them, and providing it with oxen, and every thing neces- 
sary for ploughing ; and many minute and curious laws were 
made for the regulation of such societies. This is a suffi- 
cient proof both of the poverty of the husbandman and the 
imperfect state of agriculture among the ancient Britons of 
this period.'^ 

' By the laws of Ina, king of the West Saxons, who 
flourished in the end of the seventh and beginning of the 
eighth century, a farm consisting of ten hides or ploughlands 
was to pay the following rent, viz. : ten casks of honey, 
three hundred loaves of bread, twelve casks of strong ale, 
two oxen, ten wethers, ten geese, twenty hens, ten cheeses, 
one cask of butter, five salmon, twenty pounds of forage, 
and one hundred eels.'t Such has been the state of tillage 
in that country which is now eulogized as the garden of 
Europe ! 

Improvements in breeds of domestic animals by judicious 
crosses, and propagating from the best specimens of their 
species, as well as plentiful and suitable feeding, have ad- 
vanced the state of agriculture more than the most sanguine 
advocate for scientific husbandry could have anticipated. 
To say nothing of the wonders efTected by Bakewell and 
other eminent improvers in that department of husbandry, 
we will glance at the comparative states of the London cattle 
market at a distant and a less remote period. An English 

* Loudon's Encyc. Agr. p. 36. f Wilkin's Leges Saxon, p. 25. 



PREFACE. O 

writer states that ' about the year 1700, the average weight 
of oxen killed for the London market was three hundred and 
seventy pounds ; of calves, fifty pounds ; of sheep, twenty- 
eight pounds ; and of lambs, eighteen pounds. The average 
weight at present (about the close of the century) is, of 
oxen, eight hundred pounds ; calves, one hundred and forty 
pounds ; sheep, eighty pounds ; and lambs, fifty pounds.' It 
would be a curious item in our agricultural knowledge, if 
information similar to what we have quoted relative to 
Boston and other American markets were correctly ascer- 
tained, faithfully recorded, and from time to time laid before 
the public. We should advance with more celerity and ala- 
crity along the highway of improvement, if we had means 
of marking and giving comparative views of the progress 
which we. have made and are making. 

Some idea of the present state of agriculture in England 
maybe gathered from the following extract from the journal 
of a traveller : ' Every spot of ground capable of being cul- 
tivated is improved. Wherever I have been the fields are 
generally small, inclosed by hedges, and made perfectly 
smooth by means of cast iron rollers. Numerous trees are 
left to grow around the hedges, and scattered over the fields. 
These are so nicely trimmed as to add greatly to the beauty 
of the country. Not a weed is suffered to grow. The 
crops all look well, and are much more productive than ours. 
The cattle and sheep feed on grass up to their knees, and 
look, as we should say, fit to kill. The slight inclosures that 
keep them in their pastures would be but a poor protection 
against our lean, half-fed, unruly animals. Here the cattle 
have no need to break fences. They have food sufficient 
within their own domains. I came here under the impres- 
sion that this country was bare of trees. On the contrary, I 
find it better stocked in this respect than the thick settle- 
ments of our own country. We wantonly destroy trees as 
if they were of no value : here they are planted and nursed 
with as much care as if they bore choice fruit.' 

Although we think the writer last quoted has somewhat 
exaggerated the defects of American husbandry, we must 
allow that his strictures are not so destitute of some founda- 
tion in reality as could be wished. We, however, have of 
late improved and are improving in every branch of culture, 
and bid fair soon to possess a system of agriculture as well 
adapted to our climate and circumstances as Great Britain, 
or eve.i Flanders can boast of at present. Our fields may 



6 PREFACE. 

have a less imposing appearance, and our products may be 
less in proportion to the quantity of land we have under cul- 
tivation, and still our tillage be on the whole judicious. The 
agricultural implements and farming operations of the Uni- 
ted States are in most particulars very similar to those of 
Great Britain. Circumstances and climate, however, require 
variations, which the sagacity of the American cultivator 
will lead him to adopt, often in contradiction to the opinions 
of those who understand the science better than the practice 
of husbandry. In Europe land is dear and labor cheap ; but 
in the United States the reverse is the case. The Europe- 
an cultivator is led by a regard to his own interest to endea- 
vor to make the most of his land ; the American has the 
same inducement to make the most of his labor. Perhaps, 
however, this principle, in this country, is generally carried 
to an unprofitable extreme, and our farmers would derive 
more benefit from their labor as well as their land if they 
selected such parts of their possessions as they can afford to 
till thoroughly, and to manure abundantly. A man may 
possess a large estate in lands, without being called on by 
good husbandry to hack and scratch over the whole as evi- 
dence of his title. He may cultivate well those parts which 
are naturally most fertile, and suffer the rest to remain wood- 
land, or having cleared a part, lay it down to permanent 
pasture ; which will yield him an annual profit, without re- 
quiring much labor. 

The climate and soil of the United States are well adapted 
to the cultivation of Indian corn, a very valuable vegetable, 
which cannot be grown to advantage in Great Britain. This 
entirely and very advantageously supersedes the field culture 
of the horse bean, {vicia fuba) one of the most common fal- 
low crops in that island. Root-husbandry, or the raising of 
roots for the purpose of feeding cattle, is, however, of less 
importance in the United States than in Great Britain. The 
winters are so severe that turnips can rarely be eaten by 
stock on the ground where they grow, and all sorts of roots 
are with more difficulty preserved and dealt out to stock in 
this country than in those which possess a more mild and 
equable climate. Hay is more easily made in the United 
States than in Great Britain, owing to the season for hay- 
making being more dry, and the sun more powerful in the 
former than in the latter country. There are many other 
circumstances which favor the American farmer, and render 
his situation more eligible than that of those who pursue the 



PREFACE. ( 

same occupation in most parts of Europe. He is generally 
the owner, as well as the occupier, of the soil which he culti- 
vates ; is not burdened with tithes ; his taxes are light, and 
the product of his labors will command more of the necessa- 
ries, comforts, and innocent luxuries of life, than similar 
efforts would procure in any other part ol the globe. 

Not only have the inducements to agricultural improve- 
ments ill the United States been powerful, but of late a 
corresponding effect has been the result. We cannot better 
make this evident than by a quotation from ' Remarks of the 
Rev. M. Allen, of Pembroke, coujity of Phjmouth, state of 
Massachusetts, in the Legislature of that state, on a proposition 
to renew an Act for the Encouragement of Agriculture and 
Manufactures,^ published in the New England Farmer, vol. 
xii. p. 298. 

' It has already been suggested that the soil of the county 
from which I came is not the most favorable for agricultural 
pursuits. The expense of cultiv^ation there is thought by 
some to exceed the amount to be derived from it. This was 
the prevalent opinion before the introduction of modern im- 
provements. The operations of an Agricultural Society 
have proved that labor and skill can make even despised 
soils productive. I suppose that ten bushels of rye to the 
acre, twenty of Indian corn, one ton of English hay, and 
two hundred bushels of potatoes, were formerly considered 
as average crops. Since premiums have been offered, we 
have claims for from forty to fifty bushels of rj^e, from one 
hundred and fifteen to one hundred and twenty-two of Indian 
corn, from three to four tons of English hay, and from four 
to five hundred bushels of potatoes. Our improvements 
have not been confined to single acres ; in several instances 
the products of entire farms have been more than quad- 
rupled.' 

The advances of agriculture of late years have not been 
uniform, but accelerated; its progress has been in what mathe- 
maticians would call a geometrical ratio. Every step has 
furnished means for quickening the pace and extending the 
reach of the next step, and every path has led to a longer 
and wider avenue of improvement. The time may come in 
which science may impress into the service of the cultivator 
every element or substance which constitutes the globe we 
inhabit — the world of matter become completely subservient 
to the world of mind. Then and not till then will Agricul- 



8 PREFACE. 

ture have attained the utmost degree of perfection of which 
it is capable. 

We cannot close these prefatory remarks without tender- 
ing our thanks to Mr. J. R. Newell, proprietor of the Bos- 
ton Agricultural Warehouse, and Mr. G. C. Barrett, pro- 
prietor of the New England Farmer, and of the Boston Seed 
Store, for facilities and information afforded for the work 
which we have here submitted to the agricultural community. 
To Mr. Newell we are indebted for the Cuts and Descriptions 
which come under the head ' Agricultural Implements,' page 
329 ; and Mr. Barrett has assisted us in the plan of this 
treatise. These gentlemen have for sale, at No. 52 North 
Market Street, Boston, the Machines, Implements, Seeds, 
&:c., described or referred to in the following pages. 

T. G. Fessenden. 

Boston, May, 1834. 



ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 

The first edition of The Complete Farmer and Rural Eco- 
nomist has met Avith a kind reception from a liberal and en- 
lightened community, and a more rapid sale than the Author's 
most sanguine hopes had led him to anticipate. It has also 
been honored by favorable notices and reviews from compe- 
tent judges, some of which are given on a preceding page. 
These encouraging circumstances have induced him to re- 
vise and correct it with care and circumspection, and to add 
several articles, including Rice, Tobacco, &c. with a view to 
adapt it to the southern, as well as to the middle and north- 
ern section of the Union. 

In preparing the present edition for the press we have so- 
licited the scrutiny, and been assisted with the advice of 
several gentlemen, eminent as practical and scientific culti- 
vators, to whom we tender our best acknowledgments. And 
we beg leave to state that we are under great obligations to 
the Hon. John Lowell, who has revised the present edition, 
and thus given additional proof of his ability and readiness 
to promote the great art to which this little work is devoted, 
and of which he has long been a zealous, liberal and enlight- 
ened patron. T. G. F. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Soils, 11 

Grasses, 15 

On sowing GVass Seeds, 25 

Grain, 28 

Indian Corn, . 28 

Neat Cattle, 39 

Calves, 57 

Oxen, 64 

Diseases of Cattle, 69 

Barns, 74 

Barn-yards 77 

Dairy, 80 

On Making and Preserving Butter, 81 

Cheese, 91 

Hemp, 94 

Flax, 104 

Wheat, . 112 

Black Sea Wheat, 128 

Rye, 130 

Oats, 138 

Barley, 141 

Millet, 145 

Buckwheat, 148 

Rice, 149 

Hops, 150 

Pea, 155 

Beans, 160 

Swine, 163 

Sows devouring their Offspring, 171 

Manures, 174 

Liquid Manure, 182 

Manure for Grass Grounds, 186 

Manure from Swme, 190 

Advantages of Lime, ......... 191 

Stimulation of Soils, 194 

Gypsum, 199 

Marl, 205 

Peat, 209 



X CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Bones for Manure, . . . 213 

Fences, ... 214 

Hedges, 216 

Sheep, 218 

Ewes, Lambs, &c. 222 

Shearing Sheep, 229 

Disorders of Sheep, " . 234 

Horse, ^ 240 

Diseases of Horses, 245 

Stables for Horses, . . . 248 

Colts, 254 

Mangel-Wurtzel, 255 

Euta Baga, - . . . i. 264 

English Turnips, . . - 267 

Potatoes, 271 

Cotton, 277 

Tobacco, 279 

Ploughing, 281 

mode of by E.Phinney, Esq. 287 

Hay-making, 288 

Harvesting, 293 

Drains, 296 

Pasture, 299 

Poultry, 303 

Birds, 306 

Bushes, 311 

Irrigation, 312 

Woodland, 315 

Insects, 317 

Implements of Agriculture, 330 

Farmer's Calendar, 360 

Index, 369 



THE COMPLETE FARMER. 



SOILS. A farmer should be well informed of the nature 
of soils, and of the various plants adapted to them. Some 
useful plants flourish best in what is called poor land ; and 
if cultivators were perfectly acquainted with the art of 
adapting plants to soils, much manure might be saved, which 
is wasted by injudicious and improper application. 

It is supposed by geologists that the whole of this earth 
originally consisted of rocks, of various sorts, or combina- 
tions. These rocks by the lapse of ages, and exposure to 
air and water, became disintegrated or worn in part or alto- 
Tether to fine particles, which compose what is called earths 
or soils. These soils are chiefly silica, [sand or earth of 
flints] lime, [or calcareous earth] alumina, [clay] and mag- 
nesia, [a mineral substance.] With these are blended ani- 
mal and vegetable matters in a decomposed or decomposing 
state, and saline, acid, or alkaline combinations. 

Plants are the most certain indicators of the nature of a 
soil ; for while no practical cultivator would buy or under- 
take to till land of which he knew only the results of chemi- 
cal analysis, yet every farmer and gardener who knew the 
timber and plants a soil spontaneously produced, would at 
once be able to decide on its value for cultivation. 

It was a maxim of Kliyogg, a famous philosophical farmer 
of Switzerland, ' that every species of earth may be instru- 
mental to the improvement of another of opposite qualities.' 
All sands are hot and dry — all clays, cold and wet ; and, 
therefore, the manuring sandy lands with clay, or clay lands 
with sand, is best for grain and pulse. But it is not the na- 



12 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

tural soil only that the farmer ought to consider, but the depth 
of it, and what lies immediately underneath it. For if the 
richest soil is only seven or eight inches deep, and lies on a 
cold wet clay or stone, it will not be so fruitful as leaner soils 
that lie on a better under stratum. Gravel is, perhaps, the 
best under stratum to make the land prolific. Aj 

The best loams and natural earths are of a bright brown, or ■ 
hazel color. Hence, they are called hazel loams. They 
cut smooth and tolerably easy, without clinging to the spade 1^ 
or ploughshare ; are light, friable, and fall into small clods ■ 
without chapping or cracking in dry weather, or turning 
into mortar when wet. Dark gray and russet moulds are 
accounted the next best. The worst of all, are the light and 
dark ash colored. The goodness of land may also be veryB 
well judged of by the smell and the touch. The best emits 
a fresh pleasant scent on being dug or ploughed up, espe- 
cially after rain; and being a just proportion of sand and 
clay intimately blended, will not stick much to the fingers on 
handling. But all soils, however good, may be impoverish- 
ed, and even worn out, by successive crops without rest, espe- 
cially if the ploughings are not very frequently repeated 
before the seed is sown. 

If we examine tracts of land which have not been culti- 
vated, we find nature has adapted different kinds of plants to 
most of the distinguishable A^arieties of soils ; and though 
some belonging to one may for some cause or other be found 
on lands of a different quality, they seldom thrive, or perfect 
their seeds so as to become general. The great care of the 
farmer ought, therefore, to be, by proper mixtures, to reduce 
his land to that state and temperament in which the extremes 
of hot and cold, wet and dry, are best corrected by each other ; 
to give them every possible advantage flowing from the be- 
nign influences of sun and air ; and to adopt such kinds of 
plants as they afford in this state the greatest nourishment 
to; and to renew their fertility by a judicious allowance of 
the most proper manures. Where these things are done, there 
are few spots so unfriendly to cultivation as not to repay his 
expenses and labor with a plentiful increase. But without 
these, the best tracts of land will in time become a barren 
waste, or produce little but woods. 

The color of soils is important. The Farmer's Journal 
observes, coal ashes were sprinkled over half the surface of 
beds, sown with peas, beans, &c., and on these the plants 
invariably appeared above ground two or three days earlier, 



I 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 13 

obviously on account of the incre^ised warmth ; it being a 
well-known fact, that dark colored bodies absorb caloric 
more readily, and in larger proportions than those of a lighter 
hue. 

Soils which absorb the most moisture are the most fertile. 
Sir Humphrey Davy observed, ' I have compared the ab- 
sorbent powers of many soils with respect to atmospheric 
moisture, and I have always found it greatest in the most 
fertile soils ; so that it affords one method of judging of the 
productiveness of land.' 

The methods of improving soils are too numerous to be 
here fully specified. We will, however, quote one mode of 
restoring worn out fields to the fertility of new lands, or 
lands lately cleared from their aboriginal growth of timber, 
quoted from a ' Dissertation 071 the mixture of soils," for which 
the author, the Rev. Morrel Allen, of Pembroke, Massa- 
chusetts, was awarded a premium by the Plymouth County 
Agricultural society.^ 

'Particles in a soil, which had long been in contact, and 
in consequence of long connexion lost much of the energy 
of their action on plants, are separtcd in mixing soils, placed 
in new connexions, and act with renewed vigor. But the 
most permanent and best effects are always expected from 
the mixture of soils of different qualities. When the object 
is to produce as much immediate influence as possible, merely 
to assist one short rotation of crops, to have the application 
we make act chiefly as manure, then we may take our ma- 
terials from any situation where we know \ egetable substan- 
ces have fallen and decayed. 

'We may go into forests, and in certain stages of the 
growth of the wood, without any perceptible injury, skim 
the surface of the whole lot. This soil of the woods, car/ied 
in sufficiently large quantities on to old fields, will restore 
them to original productiveness. And this will sometimes 
prove an inexhaustible resource for renewing old fields ; tor 
as often as the fields decline, the soil in the wood lot will be 
again renewed and fit to remove. For the same purposes 
the earth should be carried from the sides of walls and fences, 
where the leaves have been lodged from the forests. It 
should also be carried from hollows and temporary ponds, 
which in certain seasons of the year become dry, and afford 



* See N. E. Farmer, vol. x. p. 249. 
2 



14 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

immense quantities of vegetable matter in different stages 
of decomposition, and suitable to apply to any kind of soil. 

* Where streams of water occasionally overflow the banks, 
an abundance of vegetable and earthy matter is lodged on 
the meadows, which in many cases, especially where there 
is not much extent of meadow to receive the substances con- 
veyed by the stream, it is prudent to remove on to higher 
land. It will there act as manure, and at the same time 
gradually alter the texture of the soil, rendering it more re- 
tentive of dew and rain, and easily penetrated by the fibrous 
roots of plants. Of the value of those substances which are 
carried in streams of water to enrich soils, we have the most 
convincing proof in the unexampled productiveness of interval 
lands. It is not exclusively the vegetable substances carried 
on to these lands which make them so astonishingly pro- 
ductive ; there is a portion of every kind of soil existing in 
the surrounding country annually carried on with the vege- 
table substances. Intervals are composed of every sort of 
earth the water can reach and remove. This circumstance 
may properly encourage the mixtures of many kinds of earth, 
even when there is no particular evidence that each kind is 
especially adapted to remedy any deficiency in the soil 
which we would improve. There is less hazard in adminis- 
tering medicines in great profusion to cure diseases in the 
soil, than in the human body. In stepping out of the beaten 
path of habitual practice, and calling attention to experi- 
ments, which to some may look very simple, and to others 
very absurd, we may become instrumental in the discovery of 
highly important truths.' 

It will not do however to spread pond mud directly on 
grass land or on arable ground. An experienced farmer in- 
forms us that he once injured a piece of grass land by spread- 
ing pond mud upon it without preparation. It should be 
mixed with lime and warmer manure, and exposed to the at- 
mosphere, or put into the barn-yard to be trodden upon by 
cattle. 

Arthur Young lays it down as a maxim, that a strong, 
harsh, tenacious clay, though it will yield great crops of 
wheat, is yet managed at so heavy expense, that it is usually 
let for more than it is worth. Much money is not made on 
such land. The very contrary soil, a light, poor, dry sand, 
is very often, indeed, in the occupation of men who have 
made fortunes. Some permanent manure is usually below 
the surface, which answers well to carry on ; and sheep, the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 15 

common stock of such soils, is the most profitable sort he 
can depend on. 



GRASSES. The limits of our plan will oblige us in this, 
as in many other articles, to omit, or give but brief sketches 
of subjects which might be profitably attended to in more 
minute detail. 

Grass is a general name for plants used in feeding cattle 
in a green or dry state, for hay, or^or pasture. 

It would require a large volume to describe all the kind, 
of grass which are or may be cultivated in the United 
States. Sir John Sinclair observed, (Code of Agi'iculture, 
p. 219,) that there are in all two hundred and fifteen grast '^j 
properly so-called, which are cultivated in Great Britain. 
The duke of Bedford caused a series of experiments to be 
instituted by George Sinclair, to try the comparative merits 
and value of a number of these grasses, to the amount of 
ninety-seven, the result of which is annexed to Sir Humphrey 
Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. According to these experi- 
ments, tall fescue grass {festuca elatior) stands highest as to 
the quantity of nutritive matter afforded by the whole crop, 
^.;ien cut at the time of flowering; and meadow cat's-tail 
grass, phleum pratense,, called in New England herd's grass, 
and timothy grass in the southern states, affords most food, 
when cut at the time the seed is ripe. 

An able and elaborate article on the grasses, written by 
Judaic Buel, republished from the American Farmer, was 
given in the New Ensfland Farmer, vol. ii. p. 161, 174. 
This consisted of a ' Table, exhihitmg, in one vieiv, the com- 
parative value of some of the best grasses cultivated in the 
United States and in Great Britain, their products, luitritive 
matter, time of flowering and seeding, &c.' To this are added 
remarks, from which we have extracted the following : 

' I have found in our publications on agriculture very little 
information on the improvement of our meadow and pasture 
grounds. Indeed, the names of our native grasses are scarce- 
ly enumerated, much less are their habits described, or their 
relative merits for hay and pasture pointed out, in any Ame- 
rican work which has fallen within my notice. A conside- 
rable portion of our lands are vmsuitable for the system of 
convertible husbandry, that is, an alternation of grain and 
grass crops. Of this description are our stiff clays, marshes, 
and swamps, and all those lands in which tillage is rendered 



16 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

difficult by reason of hard pan, stones, or wetness. These 
should be improved as permanent meadows and pastures ; 
and it is of the first importance to the farmer to know the 
grasi^es which will render them most conducive to profit ; for 
that o\ir grass grounds are as susceptible of improvement as 
our tillage grounds, by a suitable selection of seeds and suita- 
ble management, must be apparent to every reflecting mind. 
The improvement and productiveness of our cattle and sheep 
husbandry, which at this time deservedly engage much of the 
public attention, depend materially on this branch of farming.' 

After adverting to the sources from which the writer de- 
rived most of his information, he proceed? : 

' Siveet-sccnted Venial Grass. This is a grass of diminu- 
tive growth, and is not worth cultivating for hay. It is 
nevertheless considered as valuable in pasture on account of 
its affording very early feed, and growing quick after being 
cropped. We are advised by Muhlenburg that it delights 
in moist soils, by the Bath papers that it does well in clay- 
ey loams, and by Dickson that it grows in almost any soil, 
including bogs and sands. G. Sinclair says it is eaten by 
oxen, horses, and sheep, though not so freely as some other 
grasses are.^ 

Mf^adow Fox Tail possesses all the advantages of early 
growth with the preceding, and is much more abundant in 
product and nutriment. It generally constitutes one of five 
or six kinds which are sowed together by the English far- 
mers for pasture ; and affords witlial a tolerable crop of hay. 
It does best in moist soils, whether loams, clays, or reclaim- 
ed bogs. Sheep and horses have a better lelish for it, says 
G. Sinclair, than oxen. 

Rough Cock's Foot. Dr. Muhlenburgh and T. Cooper 
concur in opinion that this is the orchard grzss of the Uni- 
ted States, though some that I have raised as orchard grass 
does not seem to correspond with the figure of the dactylis 
glomeraia, in the second volume of Dickson's Farmer's Com- 
panion. In England, cock's foot is taking the place of rye 
grass with clovers. Arthur Young speaks in high commen- 
dation of it ; though all writers concur in the opinion, that 

* Judge Buel does not seem to have been personally ac(|uainted with 
this invaluable grass. Its proper situation is high, welldrained meadows. 
It constitutes, in such meadows, in Massachusetts, at least one-half of 
the whole crop. Its chief fault is that it is too early for the other grasses, 
but it affords a second and even third crop if cut early. It is the grass 
which gives the finest flavor so grateful to milch cows. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 17 

it should be frequently and closely cropped, either with the 
scythe or cattle, to reap the full benefit of its great merits. I 
should prefer it to almost every other grass; and cows are 
very fond of it. Cooper rates it above timothy, and says it 
is gradually taking the place of the latter among the best 
farmers about Philadelphia. This is probably owing to the 
fact that it is earlier than timothy, and of course more suita- 
ble to cut with clover for hay. Its growth is early and ra- 
pid, after it has been cropped. It does well on loams and 
sands, and grows well in shade. 

If farther facts are wanting in favor of this grass for pas- 
ture, the reader will find them in an article in the American 
Farmer of the 14th November, 1823, with the signature, sup- 
posed to be colonel Powel's, a gentleman who combines as much 
science wilh judicious practice, especially in cattle and grass 
husbandry, as any person in the Union. He says, " I have 
tried orchard grass for ten years. It produces more pastu- 
rage than any artificial grass I have seen in America." Sow 
two bushels of seed to an acre. 

Tall Oat Grass. Both Arator (Mr. Taylor) and Dr. 
Muhlenburgh have placed this at the head of their lists of 
grasses, which they have recommended to the attention of 
the American farmer. The latter says it is of all others 
the earliest and best grass for green fodder and hay. The 
doctor was, probably, not apprized of its deficiency in nutri- 
tive matter as indicated in the table. It possesses the ad- 
vantage of early, quick, and late growth, for which the cock's 
foot is esteemed, tillers well, and is admirably calculated for 
pasture grass. I measured some on the 20th of June, when 
in blossom, when it should be cut for hay, and found it four 
and a half feet long. The latter math is nearly equal in 
weight, and superior in nutritious matter to the seed crop. 

Tall Fescue, although a native grass, has not fallen under 
my personal observation. It stands highest, says Davy, 
according to the experiments of the duke of Bedford, of any 
grass, properly so called, as to the quantity of nutritive matter 
afforded by the whole crop, when cut at the time of flower- 
ing; and meadow cat's-tail (timothy) grass affords most 
food, when cut at the time the seed is ripe. It grows natu« 
rally in wet grounds, in bog meadows, and on the sides of 
ditches often to the height of four or five feet. Our igno- 
rance (>^ agricultural botany, and of the intrinsic value of 
this gra«s, can alone have prevented its being more generally 
known and cultivated. It must be very valuable for wet 
2# 



18 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

grounds, as from its rapid growth it is calculated to smother 
or keep down the coarser kinds, which naturally abound in 
these situations. 

Rye Grass is extensively cultivated in Scotland and the 
north of England, and where cock's foot has not superseded 
it, is generally mixed with clover seeds. It is rather declin- 
ing in public estimation. It does well in pasture ; and as 
it contains much nutriment, is considered valuable for cows 
and sheep. Dickson says it does best in rich moist mea- 
dows. Young does not speak well of it. 

Red Clover. There are many species of the trifolium, and 
several varieties of the red clover. Whether the kind we 
generally cultivate is the pratense, or not, I am unable to 
determine. The character of red clover as an ameliorating 
fertilizing crop, is too generally known to require illustration. 
It cannot be depended upon for permanent grass lands; though 
it yields to no grass for alternating w^ith grain in convertible 
husbandry. It formerly was as indispensable in a course of 
crops in Norfolk, England, (which has been considered pre- 
eminent for good tillage,) as turnips; and the maxim was, 
and still is, 'no turnips, no crops.' But it appears from 
Young's survey of that country, that it cannot now be de- 
pended on oftener than once in from eight to twelve years. 
Trefoil, white clover, cock's foot, rye grass, &c., are therefore 
alternated with red clover in the grass years. There is 
reason to believe that neither red clover, nor other grasses, 
will bear repeating for a course of years upon the generality 
of soils. They exhaust the ground of the peculiar nourish- 
ment required for their support. In Great Britain white 
clover, trefoil, rye grass or cock's foot are generally sown 
with red clover seeds. From twenty to thirty pounds of 
seeds are sown to the acre. In the northern states, timothy 
is generally sown with clover ; though the mixture is an im- 
proper one for hay ; for the clover is fit for the scythe ten or 
fifteen days before the timothy has arrived to maturity. If 
sown alone, from eight to sixteen pounds of clover seed should 
be put on an acre; more on old land than on new. 

White or Dutch Clover^ [trifolium repens,) is considered 
in England of importance to husbandry, if we are to judge 
from the great quantity of seed which is there sown annually. 
With us, many districts produce it spontaneously ; but it is 
too seldom sown. It shrinks greatly in drying, and does not 
contain as much nutritive matter as red clover ; yet its value 
as a pasture grass is universally admitted. Its increase is 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 19 

very much facilitated by a top dressing of gypsum lime or 
ashes. 

Lucerne, although affording much more green food, con- 
tains less nutriment in a single crop than red clover. It 
must, however, be borne in mind, that it grows much quicker 
than clover, and will bear cutting twice as often. In the 
soilirg system, an acre of lucerne will keep four cattle or 
horses from the loth May to the first of October. I cut a 
piece about the loth ot May, and again about the 20th of 
June, to feed green, and then ploughed {he ground, and 
cropped it with ruta baga, which yielded sixteen tons to the 
acre of roots, as fine as I ever taw. Mr. Fowell (see 
Young's Norfolk, p. 345) derived a clear profit of thirteen 
pounds seventeen shillings and four-pence per acre from his 
lucerne, feci green to working horses. This is almost equal 
to sixty dollars the acre. An idea has prevailed that it will 
not thrive in this latitude, (42-3,) but the experiments o^ the 
late chancellor Livingston, and of Le Roy de Chaumont, 
prove otherwise. I sowed seed in 1821, at the rate of six 
pounds the acre, with barley. It has stood the winters well, 
much better than clover ; and has been in a state of progres- 
sive improvement. Drought has not affected it. The plants 
are very tender the first year ; and require either a very 
clean tilth, or to be kept free from weeds and grass with a 
hoe the first year. It should have a deep loam, as it sends 
down tap roots five or six feet ; and it is equally necessary 
that the ground f-hould not be wet. It may be sown either 
in drills or broad-cast, with or without grain. Fifteen 
pounds of seed are required for the acre if drilled, and twenty 
is not too much if sown broad-cast. To the proprietor of a 
dairy, an acre or two of lucerne would be valuable, to be fed 
to his cows in addition to ordinary pasture.^ 

Long-rooted Clover is a native uf Hungary, and I do not 
think has ever found its way across the Atlantic. The root 
is biennial, and if sow^n in the fall, lasts only during the next 
season. It penetrates to a great depth in the ground, and 
consequently is but little affected by drought. It therefore 
requires a deep dry soil. The product of this grass, when 
compared to others that are allied to it in habit and place 
of growth, proves greatly superior. It affords twice the 
weight of grass, and more than double the nutritive matter 



* For farther remarks on the culture of lucern?, seeN. £. Farmer, vol. 
ii. p. 342. 



20 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

that is given by the common clover. It gives abundance of 
seed ; and, says G. Sinclair, if the ground be kept free of ■ 
weeds, it sows itself, vegetates, and grows rapidly, without f 
covering in, or any operation whatever. Four years it has 
propagated itself in this manner on the space of ground 
which it now occupies, and from which this statement of its 
comparative value is made. This species would, no doubt, 
prove a valuable acquisition to our husbandry, whether we 
consider its value for green food, hay, or as a green crop to 
be turned in preparatory to grain. 

Sain Foin is peculiarly adapted to a calcareous or chalky 
soil. It is true it is cultivated in Norfolk, England, which 
is a soil of sand and loam, naturally destitute of calcareous 
matter. But it is common there to dress their lands with 
clay marl, which abounds with carbonate of lime ; without 
which dressing, says Young, Norfolk soils will not grow 
sain foin. This writer considers it ' one of the most valua- 
ble plants that were ever introduced into the agriculture of 
Great Britain.' The well-known Mr. Coke cultivates four 
hundred acres of this grass, and sows it without other seeds. 
Several attempts have been made to cultivate sain foin in 
this country, but hitherto I believe without success.^^ 

Timothy. This grass is distinguished in Great Britain 
by the name of 'meadow cafs-tail ; in New England by I 
that of herd's grass. It is one of the most valuable grasses " 
that are cultivated ; and, what is worthy the notice of every 
farmer, it affords ?nore than double the nutriment when cut I 
in the seed to what it does in the flower. In tenacious, " 
strong, and moist soils it is entitled to a precedence, perhaps, 
to any single grass for hay, yet does not seem to be suitable 
to mix with clover seeds when intended for meadow. An- 
other consideration, which renders it particularly worthy of 
attention, is the seed which it affords, and which may be 
saved without materially diminishing the hay crop. From 
ten to thirty bushels of seed may be taken from an acre of 
timothy, which, at the price it now bears, is of itself a hand- 
some remuneration. 

Fiorin has of late years been brought into notice in 
Great Britain, by the experiments of Dr. Richardson ; who 
particularly recommended it for the cold boggy soils of the 



* Sain foin may be considered as out of the question in New England. 
So large a portion is winter-killed that it is not worth cultivation. This 
IS affirmed on the strength of repeated trials. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 21 

mountainous districts, where ordinary grasses would not 
thrive. The peculiar value of the fioiin, and of other 
grasses of the agrostis family, arises from their fitness for 
xoiuter pasture : as they lose very little of their bulk or nu- 
triment by remaining in the soil after they have ceased to 
grow. Its name {creeping bent or couch graso) implies a 
difficulty in mowing it, except on a surface perfectly smooth. 
We hav^e seen it recommended to the notice of American 
farmers ; but from the very limited progress which seems to 
have been made in its cultivation we infer that it has fallen 
short of public expectation. 

Upright hent Grass. Dr. Muhlenburjh considers this the 
herd's grass of the southern, and the foul meadow of the 
eastern states, of which lohite top and red top are var'eties. 
This gras» is more congenial to our climate than to that of 
England. In any boggy soils, both varieties of this grass 
have come in spontaneously, as soon as the ground has been 
cleared and drained, have soon formed a compact sod, and 
afforded good hay and good pasture. 

Flat-stalked Meadnio Grass. This, according to I\Iuhlen- 
burgh, is the blue grass, which is considered as a pest in 
many of our tillage grounds. The small crop which it gives, 
and the little nutritive matter which this affords, shows the 
little dependence which ought to be placed on it for grazing, 
or for hay. 

Smoofh-F^alked Meadow Grass is a native plant, and is well 
adapted for permanent pastures. It grows quick after being 
cropped, and does well upon dry ground. 

Floating Fescue grows well in swamps and bog soils, where 
good kinds are most wanted. 

I would suggest, with much deference, whether grasses 
may not be divided, for the practical benefit of the farmer, 
into three kinds, to wit : Cultivated grasses. All kinds, 
strictly speaking, which the soil does not produce sponta- 
neously, are cultivated grasses. But the term as generally 
used, and in the sense 1 here employ it, applies only to such 
as are sown to alternate with grain, pulse, and roots, in a 
systematic rotation of crops. The grasses selected for this 
purpose are, generally, the red clovers, lucerne, sain foin, 
orchard, tall oat, timothy, or rye grass. Clover is the pri- 
mary dependence on all soils which will grow it, and espe- 
cially where gypsum can exercise its magic powers. As 
vegetables are said to exhaust the soil in ^proportion to the 
smallness of their leaves, (the larger the leaves the more 



22 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

nutriment they draw from the atmosphere, and the less from 
the soil,) clovers are entitled to the high commendation they 
have obtained among American farmers. But as these plants 
are liable to permature destruction by the frosts of winter, 
it is both prudent and wise to intermix with their seeds those 
of some other grasses more to be depended on. 

For this purpose, 

On sands, loams, and gravels, and these constitute the soils 
usually employed in convertible husbandry, the orchard 
grass or tall meadow oat grass appear to be best calculated 
to insure profit. They grow early, delight in a clover sod, 
and are fit for the scythe when clover is in the bloom, the 
time it ought to be cut. The hay from this mixture may 
be made before harvest commences ; and if the soil is good, 
a second crop may be cut almost equal to the first. If in- 
tended for pasture the second year, either of these grasses 
will afford more abundant food than timothy. 

In clays^ the meadow fox tail, an excellent grass, might 
be substituted, though, according to Sinclair, the tall oat 
grass will do well here also. In wet soils, where clovers do 
not grow well, timothy and meadow reed grass would be a 
good selection, sown either separate or together. 

Lucerne and sain foin require a deep dry soil, and are 
generally sown without other seeds. The first does not at- 
tain to perfection before the third year ; and both, where 
successfully cultivated, are permitted to occupy the ground 
from six to eight years. 

2d. Meadoiv grasses. In selecting these the object is to 
obtain the greatest burthen of good hay, and to mix those 
kinds which may be profitably cut at the same time. 

For clayey and moist soils, many valuable and nutritious 
kinds seem to be well adapted ; that is to say, meadow fox 
tail, timothy, tall oat, meadow soft grass, floating fescue, 
rye grass, reed meadow, smooth-stalked meadow, Ameri- 
can cock's foot, upright bent or herd's grass, and tall fes- 
cue. And the five last are peculiarly suited to swamp or 
bog soils. For d7-y loams, sands, and gravels, which never 
ought to be kept long in grass, the cock's foot or orchard 
grass, and tall oat, are probably the best ; and to these might 
be added red and white clover. 

The great difficulty is to prevent the deterioration of 
meadows. This takes place from the better grasses running 
out, and giving place to coarser kinds, in moss, and to use- 
less or noxious plants, aided often by a neglect to keep 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 23 

them well drained. The finer and more nutritious kinds 
thrive best in moist ^ though they :vill not live long in wet 
soils. Hence it is of the first importance to keep the sur- 
face soil free from standing water, by good and sufficient 
ditches ; and it often becomes necessary, and it is in most 
cases advisable, on a flat surface, to lay the land in ridges 
at right angles with the drains. Another precaution to be 
observed is not to feed them with stock when the soil is 
wet and poachy. Harrowing in the fall has been found 
beneficial to meadoAVs. It destroys mosses, and covers the 
seeds of grasses which have fallen, or may be sown, and 
thus produces a continued succession of young plants. In 
Europe, lime is used with good effect as a top dressing to 
grass lands, as are also ashes. With us, the annual appli- 
cation of a*bushel of gypsum to the acre is found beneficial. 
It not only thickens the verdure with clover, but is of ad- 
vantage in most other grasses. Stable manure should be 
used only when it can be spared from the more profitable 
uses of tillage. When the means above enumerated fail to 
insure a good crop of hay, it is time to resort to the plough, 
and a course of crops. 

3d, PaMure grasses. But few of the grasses most valued 
in Great Britain for pasture are the natural growth of the 
United States ; but it is believed that if the seeds are once 
introduced upon our farms, we shall find little difficulty in 
naturalizing them. Neither the orchard nor vernal grass, 
which are said to be indigenous to our country, are recog- 
nised in the grass lands which have come within my ob- 
servation : yet they constitute, with fox tail and tall oat 
grass, the earliest and most valuable varieties for peren- 
nial pastures. The meadow fox tail and orchard grass, 
together with our white clover and green meadow grass, 
poa triviaUs, (which seldom require to be sown,) I think 
would form the best selection for all grounds which are 
moderately dry. The rye and oat grasses, or meadow soft 
grass, might be either substituted for the two first, or com- 
bined with them. These would afford spring, summer, and 
fall feed, abundant in quantity and wholesome and nutritious 
in quality. On wet soils, (though pastures require to be 
drained, as well as meadows, to insure a rich herbage,) 
the tall fescue, smooth-stalked meadow, upright bent, and 
herd's grass, may be introduced to advantage. Gypsum is 
applied to pastures with the same benefit that it is to mea- 
dows. ' 



24 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



■ 



Two able papers, ' On Grasses' have been written by 
the Hon. John Welles, for the Massachusetts Agricultural 
Repository. One of these, republished in the New England 
Farmer, vol. i. page 235, contains the following observa- - 
tions on the loss of weight of certain grasses, by evapora-B 
tion, ' in the process of drying or making, for safe and use- 
ful preservation.' 

It should be premised that the time of cutting the several 
grasses, &c., in the following statement, was the same as is 
usually practised by husbandmen in this sta^e. 

' Of 100 lbs. of vegetables, cured in 1822, the product 
was as follows, viz. : 

100 lbs. of green white clover gave of hay, 

100 " of red do. 

100 " of herd's grass, " 

100 " of fresh meadow, " 

100 " of salt grass, " 

100 " of mixed 2d crop, English rowen, 

100 " of corn stalks, 

100 " of do. cut in the milk with the ear, 

' It is to be observed that thj weight will vary from ripe- 
ness, and many other causes, such as w^etness of season, 
shade, thickness of growth, &c.' 

In a subsequent number of the Massachusetts Agricul- 
tural Repository, was published another elaborate communi- 
cation from the same pen, from which the following table is 
extracted. 

Table showing the loss of weight in drying grasses. 

100 lbs. of green Avhite clover^ gave 
100 " of redt clover, 
100 " of herd's grass, " 

100 " of fresh meadow, " 

100 " of salt grass,1: " 

100 " of 2d crop, or English rowen, 



17* lbs. 


27^ 
40 




38 




39 




18f 
25 




25 





1822. 


1823 


17^ 


27 


27^ 


25 


40 


39 


38 


44 


39 


60 


18J 


19 



* The white clover of 1822 was taken in the shade; thai in 1823, 
from a light warm soil exposed to the sun. 

t The red clover in 1823 was taken in the first year of its product, in 
close g.owth, and for that reason falls short of 1822. 

:|: The salt grass of 1822 was, I have reason to suppose, a second 
growth, which accounts for the diflference of the two years. 

If enabled, experiments will in these cases be hereafter given, so as to 
fix the result with sufficient accuracy. 



322. 


1823. 


25 


25 




50 




46 




40 




48 




38 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 25 



100 lbs. of corn stalks, gave 

100 " of spiked oat grass, " 

100 " of red top, " 

100 " 01 Rhode Island, " 

100 " of couch grass, " 

100 " of marine black grass, " 

On Sowing Grass Seeds. A diversity of opinion exists 
relative to the best time for sowing grass seeds. Some pre- 
fer the fall ; but the majority of those who have written on 
the subject recommend sowing in the spring ; and that sea- 
son, so far as our acquaintance extends, is most generally 
chosen. European writers direct, i v^en when grass seed is 
sown on the same ground with winter grain, to sow the 
grass seed in the spring, and harroiv it in. They say that 
the harrowing wi'l on the whole be of service to the grain, 
thou_,h a fevv^ of the plants w^ill be torn up by the process. 
The Hon. Richard Peters likewise directed to 'harrow your 
winter grain in the spring, in the direction of the seed fur- 
rows, or drills, and be not afraid of disturbing a few plants ; 
manifold produce will remuner'^te for tiie destroyed.' 

The Farmer's Assistaiit says, ' Clover may be sown with 
barley, oats, or spring wheat, when that article is raised ; or 
it may be sown with winter wheat in the fall, if the land be 
dry and warmly exposed ; or in the spring, when it should 
be lightly harrowed in. The Domestic Encyclopedia as- 
serts that ' experienced farmers generally prefer sowing 
clover with wheat rather than with barley or oats, as in dry 
seasons the clover frequently overpowers the oats or barley, 
and if it be sown late in order to obviate this evil, it often 
fails, and the crop is lost for that season. Probably the di- 
versity of opinion respecting the proper time of sowing clover 
seed may arise from the difference in the nature of the soil 
on which trials have been made. An experienced agricul- 
turist, (Edward Duffield, Esq., of Philadelphia county,) as- 
sures Dr. Mease that he repeatedly failed in obtaining a crop, 
when he sowed his clover in autumn or winter ; and he is 
uniformly successful when he sows in the spring. His soil 
is a light loam.' 

On the other hand, an experienced and scientific cultiva- 
tor, whose suggestions on this subject were published in the 
New England Farmer, vol. vi. p. 238, dated Weston, and 
signed J. M. G., says, ' Dear bought experience has taught 
3 



26 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



n 



me the inefficacy of sowing grass seed in spring with grain ; 
it was a custom imported with the ancestors of the country 
from old England, where the cloudy summers and moist 
climate will warrant a practice which, under our clear sky 
and powerful sun, is ahogether unsuitable. I must add that 
grass sown in the fall imperiously requires to be rolled in 
the spring as soon as the ground is in fit order ; otherwise 
the small plants, slightly rooted yet, and heaved up by the 
frost, will suffer much, perhaps total destruction ; and truly, 
among the many uses to which the roller may be applied, 
none, perhaps, would be more valuable than to roll all grass 
lands in spring. The plants suffer from the wind and from 
the heat, and this being the case more or less every spring, 
it must necessarily bring on a permature decay, which the 
yearly use of the roller at that season might prevent.' 

We cannot reconcile these authorities ; but it is probable 
that both in fall and spring sowing of grass seeds there may 
be successful and unfavorable results, according to circum- 
stances of soil, season. &,c. Fall sown grass seeds are 
liable to be winter-killed, or destroyed by frost ; spring soAvn 
gras.^ seeds may perish by drought and heat. But, when- 
ever sown, there will be less danger either from frost or 
drought, if the seed is well covered with a harrow, and the 
gi-ound pressed on it with a roller. 

Young's Farmer's Calendar, under the date of August, 
says. ' This is the best season of the whole year for laying 
down land to grass ; and no other is admissible for it on 
strong, wet, or heavy soils. Spring sowings with grain may 
succeed, and do often, but that they are hazardous I know 
from forty years' experience.' 

There is likewise a great difference of opinion as respects 
the quanhty of seed to be sown when land is laid down to 
glass. Sir John Sinclair says, ' It is a great error, in laying 
land down to grass, to sow an insufficient quantity of seeds'! 
In general, twelve or fourteen pounds of clover is the usual 
average allowance. But that quantity, it is contended, ought 
greatly to be increased, and in many cases doubled.' The 
Farmer's Assistant tells us that ' the quantity of red clover 
seed to be sown on the acre is about fourteen pounds, and 
none but clean seed ought to be sown.' 

The 'Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture of the State 
of JNew York,' vol. ii. p. 30, in giving an account of the 
methods of culture adopted by farmers in Rensselaer coun- 
ty, state tnat ' Farmers differ in opinion in regard to the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 27 

most suitable quantity of seed. S. Germond, H. Worthing- 
ton, C. Porter, C. R. Golden, and some others, say that eight 
quarts of the mixture of clover and timothy seed should be 
sown on every acre. And colonel J. Carpenter sows six- 
teen quarts on an acre. He says when the grass and clover 
grow very thick, it will be more tender feed, and m<ire fine 
hay, and that it will not run out so soon. But J. Phillips, 
G. Eddy, and many others, consider four quarts as suffi- 
cient. 

' All agree that the proportions of the mixture of the 
seeds should be governed by the nature of the soil : that 
in a sandy soil three-fourths of the seed should be clover ; 
in clay loam it should be equal parts ; in clay soil but one- 
fourth clover seed. 

' There should be at least a bushel of plaster sown o^ 
every acre of clover and s^rass land of a sandy, gravelly, or 
loamy soil. Also on all upland natural meadows. Two 
bushels per acre are much better than one on sandy or gra- 
velly soil.' 

Payson Williams, Esq., of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, who 
received a premium from the Massachusetts Agricultural so- 
ciety for the greatest quantity of spring wheat, raised by 
] n in the summer of 1822, in giving a description of the 
mode of culture by him adopted, says, ' The quantity of grass 
seed used by me is never less than twelve pounds of clover 
and one peck of herd's grass (timothy) to the acre. Here, 
permit me to observe, that innumerable are the instances in 
this country where the farmer fails in his grass crops by not 
allowing seed enough ; and, what is worse, the little he does 
give with a sparing hand is suffered to take its chance un- 
der that pest of agriculture called the bush harrow, which 
not only drags stones and other loose matters into heaps, 
but leaves the soil dead and heavy, and does not cover the 
seed deep enoug^h to strive with our July drought eti'ectu- 
ally.' 

We have, however, been verbally assured by very cor- 
rect and scientific agriculturists, that six or seven pounds of 
clover seed, ivhere the ground is highly manured., is amply 
sufficient, and that by exceeding that quantity the plants so 
shade and stifle each other that there is little substance in 
the hay made from them. No doubt much depends on the 
quality and richness of the soil. The poorer the soil the 
greater the quantity of grass seed. Clover seed of a bright 
yellow, with a good quantity of the purple and brown color- 



28 THE COMPLETE FARMER f 

ed seed among it, (which shows the maturity of the seed,) i 
should be preferred. i 



GRAIN. Grain, strictly speaking, signifies seeds, grow- 
ing in spikes or ears, and includes wheat, rye, barley, oats, 
&c. Of the culture of these ^ve shall treat under those 
heads, respectively. We shall here give some directions! j 
for improving grain of any sort which has become musty, or 
sour. 

' The wheat [or other grain] must be put into any con- 
venient vessel, capable of containing at least three times the 
quantity, and the vessel must be subsequently filled wdth 
boiling water ; the grain should then be occasionally stirred, 
and the hollow and decayed grains (Avhich will float) may 
be removed ; when the water has become cold, or, in general, 
when about half an hour has elapsed, it is to be drawn off. 
It will be proper then to rinse the corn [grain] with cold 
water, in order to lemove any portion of the water which 
had taken up the must ; after which, the corn being com- 
pletely drained, it is, without loss of time, to be thinly spread 
on the floor of a kiln, and thoroughly dried, care Deing 
taken to stir and to turn it frequently daring this part of the 
process.' — Code of Agrictdture. 

Indian Corn. Indian corn, or maize, as it is sometimes 
called, is a very important crop. The celebrated English 
agriculturist, Arthur Young, in speaking of the agriculture 
of France, observed, ' The line of maize [corn] may be 
said to be the division between the good husbandry of the 
south and the bad husbandry of the north of the kingdom ; 
till you meet with maize, very rich soils are fallowed, but 
never after. Perhaps it is the most important plant that can 
be introduced into the agriculture of any country, where cli- 
mate will suit it. The only good husbandry in the king- 
dom (some small rich districts excepted) arise? from the 
possession and management of this plant. For the in- 
habitants of a country to live upon that plant, which is the 
preparation for wheat, and at the same time keep their cattle 
fat upon the leaves of it, is to possess a treasure for which 
they are indebted to their climate.' The perfect tillage 
and plentiful manuring requisite for Indian corn make it an 
excellent substitute for a summer fallow ; it is a crop not 
liable to be injured by too much or too coarse manure ; it 
not only enables, but, as it were, forces the farmer in the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 29 

course of its culture to subdue his land and exterminate 
weeds. 

Soil. A light loamy soil is best for this crop, and even 
if sand greatly predominates it will produce good corn with 
the help of manure. Corn will not flourish on lands in 
which clay is the chief ingredient, and which are therefore 
stiff and wet. 

Pre-paration. ' The best preparation for a corn crop is 
a clover or other grass lay, well covered with a long manure, 
recently spread, neatly ploughed, and harrowed lengthwise 
of the furrow. A roller may precede the harrow with ad- 
vantage. The time of performing these operations depends 
on the texture of the soil and the quality of the sod. If 
the first is inclining to clay, or the latter tough, or of long 
continuance; the ploughing may be performed the preceding 
autumn ; but where sand or gravel greatly preponderate, 
or the sod is light and tender, it is best performed in the 
spring, and as near to planting as is convenient. The har- 
row, at least, should immediately precede planting. All 
seeds do best when put into the fresh stirred mould. Stiff 
lands are ameliorated and broken down by fall ploughing; 
but light lands are rather prejudiced by it. When corn is 
preceded by a tilled crop, the ground should be furrowed, and 
the seed deposited in the bottom of the furrows. Where 
there is a sod, the rows should be superficially marked, and 
the seed planted on the surface. Where the field is flat, or 
the sub-soil retentive of moisture, the land should be laid in 
ridges, that the excess of water which falls may pass off in 
the furrows. 

' The time of planting must varjr in different districts, and 
in different seasons. The ground should be sufficiently 
warmed by vernal heat, to cause a speedy germination. 
Natural vegetation aflbrds the best guide. My rule has 
been to plant when the apple is bursting its blossom buds, 
which has generally been between the 12th and 20txi of 
May. 

' Preparation of the seed. The enemies to be combated 
are the wire-worm, brown grub, birds, and squirrels. Of 
these the first and two lest prey upon the kernels, and 
against these tar offers a complete protection. I soak my 
seed twelve to twenty hours in hot water, in which is dis- 
solved a few ounces of crude saltpetre, and then add (say 
to eight quarts of seed) half a pint of tar, previously warmed, 
and diluted with a quart of warm water. The mass is well 
3# 



30 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

Stirred, the corn taken out, and as much plaster added as 
will adhere to the grain. This impregnates and partially 
coats the seed v/ith tar- The experience of years will war- 
rant me in coniidently recommending this as a protection for 
the seed. 

' The manner of planting is ordinarily in hills from two 
and a half to six feet apart, according to the variety of 
corn, the strength of the soil, and the fancy of the cultiva- 
tor. The usual distance in my neighborhood is thiee feet. 
Some, however, plant in drills of one, two, or three rows, by 
which a greater crop is unquestionably obtained, though the 
expense of culture is somewhat increased. The quantity 
of seed should be double, and may be nuadruple"^ what is 
required to stand. It is well known that a great difference 
is manifest in the appearance of the plants. Some appear 
feeble and sickly, which the best nursing will not render pro- 
ductive. The expense of seed, and the labor of pulnng up 
all but three or four of the strongest plants in a hill, it is be- 
lieved will be amply remunerated by the increased product. 
If the seed is covered ctS it should be with mould only, and 
not too deep, we may at least calculate upon every hill or 
drill having its requisite number of plants. 

* The after culture consists in keeping the soil loose and 
free from weeds, which is ordinarily accomplished by two 
dressings, and in thinning the plants, which latter may be 
done the first hoeing, or partially omitted till the last. The 
practice of ploughing among corn and of making large hills 
is justly getting into disrepute ; for the plough bruises and 
cuts the roots of the plants, turns up the sod and manure to 
waste, and renders the crop more liable to suffer by drought. 
The first dressing should be performed as soon as the size 
of plants will permit, and the best implement to precede 
the hoe is the corn harrow, adapted to the width of the rows, 
which every farmer can make. This will destroy most of 
the weeds, and pulverize the soil. The second hoeing 
should be performed before or as soon as the tassels appear, 
and may be preceded by the corn harrow, a shallow fur- 
row with the plough, or, what is better than either, by the 
cultivator. A slight earthing is beneficial, provided the 



* Messrs. Pratts, of Madison county, New York, obtained the prodi- 
gious crop of o.ie hundred and seventy bushels per acre, and used sevea 
bushels of seed to the acre, the plants being subsequently reduced to the 
requisite number. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 31 

earth is scraped from the surface, and the sod and manure 
not exposed. It will be found beneficial to run the harrow 
or cultivator a third and even a fourth time between the 
rows, to destroy weeds and loosen the surface, parti^^ularly 
if the season is dry. 

' In Jtar vesting the crop-, one of three modes is adopted, 
viz. : 1. The corn is cut at the sarface of the ground when 
the grain has become glazed or hard upon the outside, put 
it immediately into stooks, and when sufficiently dried the 
corn and stalks are separated, and both secured. 2. The 
tops are taken off Avhen tlie corn has become glazetl, and 
the grain permitted to remain till October or November upon 
the but,,s. Or, 3. Both corn and stalks are left standing 
till the grain has fully ripened and the latter become dry, 
when both are secured. There are other modes, such as 
leaving the butts or entire stilks in the field after the gTain 
is gathered; but these are so wasteful and slovenly as not to 
merit consideration. The stalks, blades, and tops of corn- 
if well secured, are an excellent fodder for neat cattle. If 
cut, or cut and steamed, so that they can be readily masti- 
cated, they are superior to hay. Besides, their fertilizing 
properties as a manure are greatly augmented by being fed 
ort in the cattle yard ai d imbibing the urine and liquids 
which always there abound, and which are lost to the farm 
in ordinary yards, without abundance of dry litter to take 
them up. By the first of these methods, the crop may be 
secured before the autumnal rains ; the value of the fodder 
is increased, and the ground is cleared in time for a winter 
crop of wheat or rye. The second mode impairs the value 
of the forage, requires more labor, and does not increase the 
quantity or improve the quality of the grain. The third 
mode requires the same labor as the first, may improve the 
quality of the gram, but must inevitably deteriorate the 
quality of the fodder. The corn cannot be husked too 
promptly after it is gathered from the field. If permitted to 
heat the value of the grain is materially impaired.' 

To the above directions (which are quoted from an excel- 
lent article written by J. Buel, Esq., of Albany, originally 
published in The Genessee Farmer, and republished in the 
New England Farmer, vol. xi. p. 305) we shall add some 
further particulars from various sources. 

A writer for GoodselVs Genessee Farmer, with the signa- 
ture W. P. W., recommends wetting seed corn with soft 



32 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

soap, and rolling it in plaster, and gives the details of an ex- 
periment which tested the utility of this practice. 

William Clark, Jun,. of Northampton, Massachusetts, pub- 
lished an article on the culture of corn in the New England 
Farmer, vol. xi. p. 337, giving in detail a number of experi- 
ments, which favored the opinion that an equal distance each 
way is the best method of planting corn ; and that on soil 
'similar to what I have described, [a sandy loam somewhat 
exhausted by neglect and severe cropping, manured with 
about twenty cart loads of compost to the acre] about nine 
square feet of surface is sufficient ground for one hill.' That 
is, the hills were three feet apart each way from centre to 
centre ; but he does not state how many kernels were plant- 
ed, nor how many plants were suffered to remain in a hill. 

It has often been stated that great advantage was derived 
from selecting seed corn from stalks which had borne two 
or more ears. The Hampshire Gazette, published at North- 
ampton, Massachusetts, mentions a farmer who ' has selected 
his seed corn in this way for three years past, and the result has 
exceeded his expectation. He states that it is not uncommon 
to find in his corn-field this season, [1831] stalks with three, 
four, five, and sometimes six ears, and three of them fair, full 
grown, and fit for seed, and that t^o in hills containing four 
or five stalks.' He says, ' I think my crop has been increas- 
ed several bushels this year by the experiment. I would 
suggest a m.ode of selecting seed to those who do not cut up 
the corn at the roots. When they are picking corn, and 
find a s^ilk with two or more ears, let them tie the husks 
together, and the ears will be easily known at husking.' 

A solution of copperas in water has been recommended 
as forming a good preparation for seed corn. Mr. J. Ells- 
worth, of Ketch Mills, Connecticut, in a communication 
published in the New England Farmer, vol. x. p. 331, stated 
as follows : 

' Last year I soaked our seed corn in very strong copperas 
w^ater, as near as I can recollect from twenty-four to thirty- 
six hours ; every kernel was made as black as charcoal ; the 
man who planted the corn called me a fool, and said it 
would never vegetate. But every hill planted came up welll 
and during its growth excited the remarks of all who saw itf 
as being the most even field of corn they ever saw. Not 
one hill in the whole seven acres was injured by worms ; 
and we had often in previous years been compelled to re- 
plant several times, when it had been cut down by the worms. 



II 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 33 

We had over sixty bushels to the acre.' Copperas water 
will not preserve corn against the cut-ivorm^ which eats cff 
the young plants at or just below the surface of the ground. 
It has been often asserted, (but we have not known it tested 
by experiment,) that the kernels of corn from the but-ends 
of the ears arc better for seed than those from any other p.irt 
of the ear. It is said that the nearer the seed is taken from 
the largest end, the larger the product. Others recommend 
to reject some part of both ends, and plant onlj"^ seeds taken 
from the middle. Farther experiments are desirable to as- 
certain these points. 

' The following table,' says judge Buel, ' exhibits the dif- 
ference in product of various metliods of planting, and serves 
also to explain the manner in which large crops of this grain 
have been obtained. I have assumed in the estimate that 
each stock produces one ear of corn, and that the ears ave- 
rage one gill of shelled grain. This is estimating the product 
low ; for while I am penning this (October) I find that my 
largest ears p-ive two gills, and one hundred fair ears half a 
bushel of she?ied corn. The calculation is also predicated on 
the supposition that there is no deficic^ -^y in the number of 
stocks, a contingency preity sure on my method of planting.^ 

hills. bush. qts. 

1. An acre in hills four feet apart each 

way will produce 

2. The same, three feet by three 

3. The same, two by two and a half feet 

4. The same, in drills at three feet, 

plants six inches apart in the drills 

5. The same in do., two rows in a diill, 

six inches apart, and the plants 
nine inches, and three feet nine 
inches from centre of drills, thus : 



2722 


42 


16 


4S40 


7.5 


20 


5S08 


93 


28 


stalks. 






29,040 


113 


14 



6. The same in do., three rows in a drill, 
as above, three feet from centres 
of drills, thus : 



30,970 120 31 



43,560 170 5 

'The fifth mode I have tr ied. The ground was highly 

* Planting an extra number of plants and thinning them at the f^rst 
or second hoeing. 



34 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

manured, the crop twice cleaned, and the entire acre gather- 
ed and weighed accurately the same day. The product in 
ears was one hundred and three bushels, each eight j^-four 
pounds net, and sixty-five pounds over. The last bushel was 
shelled and measured, which showed a product on the acre 
of one hundred and eighteen bushels ten quarts. I gathered 
at the rate of more than one hundred bushels to the acre 
from four rods planted in the third method, last summer, the 
result ascertained in the most accurate manner. Corn 
shrinks about twenty per cent, after it is cribbed. The sixth 
mode is the one by Avhich the Messrs. Pratts, of Madison 
county, obtained the prodigious crop of one hundred and 
seventy bushels per acre. These gentlemen, I am told, are 
of opinion, that the product of an acre may be increased to 
two hundred bushelp.' 

We believe that nearly all the large and premium crops 
which have been noted in the annals of agriculture, were 
procured by planting the corn in drills, either single, double, 
or treble. There has, however, been a difference in opinion 
relative to planting com in ridges or on a flat surface. This, 
we think, depends on the nature of the soil. A loamy soil, 
or such as is proper for corn, ought, in our climate, to be cul- 
tivated in a flat way, that it may the better retain moisture. 
Dr. Black, of Delaware, advises to plant corn in such a man- 
ner that the rows may run directly north and south. General 
Hull, of Newton, Massachusetts, in cultivating a premium 
crop of corn, ' drew furrows north and south three and a half 
feet apart. No ridges were formed. Hills were then made 
with the hoe in those furrows two feet apart, not flat, but de- 
scending to the south, loith a small hank on the north side of 
each hill, for the purpose of giving the young plants a fairer 
exposure to the sun. 

When corn is planted on green sward land, the holes for 
the hills or drills should be made qL.ite through the furrows, 
and dung put into the holes. If this caution be not observed 
the crop will be uneven, as the roots in somj places, wheie 
the furrows are thickest, will have but little benefit from the 
rotting of the sward. But if the holes are made through, 
the roots will be fed with both fixed and putrid air, supplied 
by the fermentation in the grass roots of the turf."^ 

Some entertain an idea, that it is injurious to stir the soil 
when it is dry and the plants are suffering for want of rain. 
The error of this supposition is well exposed in an article 

^ Deane's N. E. Farmer. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 35 

written by the Hon. J. Lowell, headed, ' Stirring the earth a 
relief against drought,'' republished from the Massachusetts 
Agricultural Repository in the New England Farmer, vol. 
xi. p. 92. The following is an extract : 

' 111 this extraordinary [very dry] season, I had a small 
patch of early potatoes, planted in a warm and sandy soil, 
purpof^ely to procure an early crop ; the soil was, at least, 
three-quarters pure sand, mixed with some food for plants 
among the sand. The severe drought threatened a total loss 
of the crop. The potato stalks were feeble, drawn up. 
scarcely larger than goose quills, and I expected every day 
to see them wither ; all hopes of a crop were abandoned. I 
thought that they were the fair subjects of a desperate expe- 
riment. On one of the hottest and driest days, I gave them 
a thorough*ploughing, passing the plough four times through 
each row; first ploughing two furrows from the hills, as 
near the roots as possible without throwing out the seed po- 
tatoes, and then returning the loam or earth instantly back 
by two other furrows. No rain intervened for ten days. In 
three days after, the potatoes changed their color, they start- 
ed afresh as if they had received the benefit of ample showers, 
while not a drop of rain had fallen. 

' The dews, which were abundant, settled upon the new 
turned earth, while before the ploughing no moisture had 
been apparent. 

* The last fact, though it cannot have escaped the notice 
of the most careless cultivator, has not been as yet explained. 
We can easily see that a soil rendered porous would more 
readily and easily convey its moisture to the roots. It be- 
comes like a sponge, and is readily permeable, or rather 
readily permits the moisture to pass between the particles. 
But it is not yet understood why it attracts the moisture. 
Perhaps, however, it may be owing to its presenting a much 
greater surface to the moist air of the night. The fact, how- 
ever, which is what most concerns us, is settled. Perhaps 
some of the experiments of our distinguished countryman Dr. 
Wells, a physician of London, who rendered himself distin- 
gushcd by his remarks on dew, may tend to explain this fact, 
though it is not my purpose to exaniine the theory. 

'Every man who feels an interest in the question can 
satisfy himself at once by stirring a small piece of earth in 
a time of severe drought, and if he does not find it in the 
morninor more filled with moisture than the undisturbed 
ground in its vicinity, let him continue an unbeliever. 



36 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



id-vrtf ■ 



'But there is another mode, and it is one which I have 
never heard suggested, by which I apprehend the stirring of 
the surface, and making it light and poious, is beneficial in 
great droughts. It is this : light porous bodies are bad con- 
ductors of heat : perhaps because they have more air be- 
tween their interstices. The facts are familiar to us. Me- 
tallic bodies acquire an intense heat under the rays of the 
sun ; so do stones in proportion to their density. The earth, 
when very compact, will become exceedingly hot, but garden 
loam, which is very porous, remains cool at noon day two 
inches below the surface. I believe, therefore, that moving 
the surface, and keeping it in a light and porous state ena- 
bles it to resist the heat of the sun's rays; that the air between 
the particles of earth communicates the heat more slowly 
than the particles themselves do when in close contact. 

*Such is my theory, but I am an enemy to theories. I 
always distrust them ; I look only to facts ; and having ob- 
served that a slight covering of half an inch of sea weed 
would preserve my strawberries from drought, which can 
only arise from its lying so loose on the surface, I have been 
led to infer that the undoubted fact, that soil in a loose pul- 
verized state resists drought, is owing to the same cause, to 
wit, the slowness with which the heat of the solar rays is 
communicated to the roots. But, be the theory sound or 
unsound, I am persuaded that every farmer will find that the 
free use of his plough and hoe, in times of severe drought, will 
be of more value to him than as much manure as that labor 
would purchase. I have a.»vays been convinced from my 
experience as an horticulturist, that the great secret in culti- 
vation consists in making the soil porous. In raising exotic 
plants we know it to be true, and our flower-pots are always 
supplied with soil the most porous which we can obtain. 
The farmer may borrow light from an occupation which he 
looks upon with disdain, but which serves to elucidate and 
explain the secrets of vegetation.' 

Corn is sometimes profitably planted or sown for fodder. 
In an Add'^ess to the Essex Agricultural Society, by the late 
colonel Pickering, we find the following remarks : 

' Every farmer knows bow eagerly cattle devour the en- 
tire plant of Indian corn in its green state ; and land in good 
condition will produce heavy crops of it. Some years ago, 
just when the ears were in the milk, I cut close to the ground 
the plants growing on a measured space, equal as I judged 
to the average product of the whole piece ; and found that, 



AND RTTRAL 15CONOMIST. 37 

at the same rate, an acre would yieiJ. twelve tons of green 
fodder ; probably a richer and more nourishing food than any 
other known to the husbandman. And this quantity was 
the g-rowth of less than four months.' ^ ^ =H: ' Jt h^g ap- 
peared to me that the sort called sweet corn, yields stalks 
of richer juice than the common yellow corn. It is alsio 
more disposed to multiply suckers, an additional recommen- 
dation to it, when planted to be cut in a green state for horses 
and cattle, and especially for milch cows ; and the time of 
planting may be so regulated as to furnish supplies of food 
just when the pastures usually fail. 1 am inclined to doubt 
whether any other green food will afford butter of equal ex- 
cellence.' 

Colonel Pickering recommended planting northern corn in 
preference fo southern corn, when fodder is the object. He 
observed that * the green stalks of our northern corn are in- 
comparably sweeter than those of the southern states, at 
least when both sorts are grown in the north. 

Corn intended for fodder may be sowed either broad-cast 
or in drills. The former is the least trouble, the latter will 
give the greatest produce, and leave the soil in the best order. 

If the land on which you propose to raise your corn is 
mowing or pasture, fresh ploughed for the purpose, broad- 
cast sowing will be best, as the sod after being turned over 
should not be disturbed, and there will not, probably, be 
much to apprehend from weeds. If you sow broad-cast, 
from three to three and a half bushels to an acre are recom- 
mended, though some say that a larger quantity will be still 
better. If in drills you will run light furrows about three 
feet p sunder, three or four inches deep, and drop the seed 
corn in the furrows, about as thick as peas are sown for field 
cultivation. The seed may be covered with the plough ; and 
a harrow drawn lengthwise of the furrows, followed by a 
roller, (if you have one,) or perhaps your harrow turned bot- 
tom upv/ards, for want of a roller, will complete the planting. 
If you mean to dry it for winter use, it will be advisable to 
sow early in the season, for it will then be fit to cut at a 
time when it can be most easily cured for preservation in 
your barn, or other receptacle for fodder. 

The following remarks on the culture of corn are from the 
pen of the Rev. Mr. Colman, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, 
one of our best practical and scientific fanners. 

In the cultivation of this crop, it is in the first place im- 
portant to secure an early kind, as the best security against 
4 



38 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

backward springs and early frosts. A field of corn in Lex- 
ington, planted on the 21st of June, belonging to Mr. Daniel 
Chandler, yielded an ample crop, and was perfectly ripened. 
The seed was of the twelve rowed kind, mi.ch esteemed there, 
and easily procured. The kernel is small, but it yields as 
much to the acre, and weighs more to the bushel, than the ' 
eight rowed kind, with a laiger kernel. Now a kind of this 
description, which will ripen in nine or ten weeks, in so un- 
propitious a season as the last, when there were few warm 
nights, which are generally considered most important to the 
forwarding of this crop, is certainly a great acquisition. It 
will be well to remark here, that it is not only important to 
procure an early kind, but it will require particular attention 
to keep it so. Plants, like animals, have a constant tendency 
to become accommodated to the place and season in which 
they grow. Indian corn brought from the north to the south 
will become later and require a longer season for its ripening, 
unless particular care is taken in the selection of the earliest _ 
ripe ears for planting; which is, that high manuring has aal 
tendency, by rendering the growth of a plant more luxuriant 
and succulent, to retard its ripening and to lengthen its 
season. 

We are satisfied from long observation and experiment that 
an early planting of corn is generally and strongly to be 
recommended. The last season, it is true, formed an excep- 
tion to this rule; but it was a rare case. Now a kind of 
corn which by early planting and consequently early ripen- 
ing gives an opportunity of laying down the same ground 
seasonably with winter grain and clover ; or which, where 
the first plantings will afford us the prospect of a full crop, 
when the vacancies are not supplied or the planting- cannot 
take place until after the middle of June, certainly is a great 
object to farmers. 

The kind of land best suited to this crop, I am satisfied, is 
green sward, completely inverted, rolled, and so cultivated as 
not during the whole season to disturb or break the sod 
which has been turned over. This is a point of great impor- 
tance ; for the decomposition of the vegetable matter in the 
ground, which is effectually secured in this way, but entirely 
lost by the common mode of cultivation, will greatly con- 
tribute to the nutriment and vigor of the plant, supplying in 
fact an amount of manure greatly beyond what any con- 
jectures would have made it, had not an exact experiment 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



^ 



determined that in ordinary cases it may be rated over twelve 
tons of vegetable matter to the acre. 

In the next place we protest against the practice of very 
deep ploughing for this crop, and that of burying the ma- 
nure deeply under the sod. The depth of ploughing may 
be in some measure regulated by the nature of the soil ; but 
three or four inches in sward land may be regarded as ample ; 
and not so much as this, where this would carry you below 
the vegetable mould. All circumstances considered, 1 am 
satisfied that it is most eligible to spread the manure upon 
the surface, ploughing it in with a very light plough and 
harrow ; and though something may be lost in this way by 
evaporation, yet not so much as burying it under the sod; 
and the land is left in much better condition for the next 
crops where the manure is thus spread, than where it is 
placed in the hill ; nor is the corn so like to sutler from the 
drought, and the saving is considerable. 



NEAT CATTLE. Neat cattle form a very important 
part of every farmer's live stock. In selecting them, two 
things are very material : first, the health and soundness of 
the stock from which they are purchased ; and secondly, the 
quality of the soil on the produce of which it is intended to 
feed them. Stock for the dairy or the butcher should be 
selected from a breed of which you know or can ascertain 
every particular relative to their general health and sound- 
ness, and the manner in which they have been reared, in- 
cludlnnf their food, sheltr-r, 6cc. 

The Farmer's and Grazier's Complete Guide, by B. Law- 
rence, an English writer, observes, ' Much has been written 
as to what breeds are the best ; and a considerable greater 
stress has been laid on this part of the question than is borne 
out by any positive result ; there are good and bad of all 
kinds ; and provided you select sound and healthy animals 
from warranted stock, you will, if you treat them properly, 
have little to care for and less to fear. 

' Always purchase cattle that have been fed on lands of a 
poorer quality than your own ; but you must not too sud- 
denly put them to the richer food, or they will be liable to 
several dangerous diseases. It rarely happens, however, that 
cattle purchased from rich lands thrive well on poor soils ; 
but, on the contrary, those from poorer farms do well on 



40 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

good land. The choice of neat cattle, therefore, for the 
stocking of farms, must, in a great degree, be regulated by 
the nature and quality of the soil intended to feed them on. 

' It is also essential that the cattle should be young, as 
well as healthy and of sound constitution ; for the younger! 
they are, the more likely they will be to do service. Their 
age may easily be known by the teeth ; like sheep, they 
have no fore teeth in the upper jaw ; it is in the lower, 
therefore, by which this must be determined : the horns also 
afford some guide in this respect. 

' The eight fore teeth of the lower jaw are shed, and re- 
placed by others which continue through life : the two mid- 
dle fore teeth fall out at about two years old, and are suc- 
ceeded by others not so white. At three years old they 
hvLve two more next to those of the previous year ; and 
thus by the two succeeding years all the fore teeth are re- 
newed ; they are then termed full mouthed, and are five 
years old. At the sixth year the row is even, the last two 
being completely up. Besides these they have ten grinders 
in each jaw. 

' At the age of three years the horns are smooth and 
even ; in the course of the fourth year, a wrinkle or circle 
forms round the basis of the horn near the head ; this is 
every year succeeded by another, which ahvays seems to 
move the other forward. At looking therefore at the horns 
of neat cattle, if the first circle be considered as three years, 
it will be an easy task to tell the age of the beast at any 
subsequent period. An implicit reliance cannot, however, 
be placed on these marks, particularly in purchasing of 
strangers, or cow jobbers, such persons having been known 
to file down some of the animars teeth and alter the ap- 
pearance of the horns so as to give them the semblance and 
marks of young cattle of the most valuable breeds, and pass 
them off as such to strangers.' 

Coios for the hairy. In selecting cows for the dairy, the 
following indications should be attended to. Wide horns, a 
thin head and neck, dew-lap large, full breast, broad back, 
large deep belly ; the udder capacious but not too fieshy ; 
the milch veins prominent, and the bag tending far tohind ; 
teats long and lurge ; buttocks broad and fleshy ; tail lono-, 
pliable, and small in proportion to the size of the carcass, 
and the joints short. The Alderney breed gives a very rich 
milk. The Durham short horns, however, exceed them as 
respects quantity ; and we have the testimony of the Hon. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 41 

Levi Lincoln, late governor of Massachusetts, that the milk 
of Denton's progeny, a branch of that race, is not only abun- 
dant, but of excellent quality.^ 

Cows should be milked regularly morning and evening, 
and as nearly as may be at the same hours. At six in the 
morning and six at night is a good general rule, as the times 
of milking will be equi-distant from each other. But if they 
are milked three times a day, as Dr. Anderson recommended, 
the times may be five, one, and eight. He asserted that if 
cows were full fed, they will give half as much again if 
milked three times as if only twice. At the same time, it 
would prevent too great a distension of their bags, to which 
the best cows are liable. 

Thp cow which is desired to remain in perfection, either 
for milking or breeding, should not be exhausted by drawing 
her milk too long after she becomes heavy with calt. It is 
paying too dear for a present supply of milk. She should 
be suffered to go dry at least two months before calving. 

The expense of keeping cows of a poor breed is as great 
and sometimes greater than that of keeping the best. If 
cows are poorly kept the difference of breeds will scarcely be 
discernible by the product of their milk. Some have there- 
fore supposed that it is the food alone which makes the odds 
in the quantity and quality of the milk. This supposition 
is very e? i oneous, as may be shown by feeding two cows of 
a similar age, size, &c. on the same food, the one of a good 
breed for milk and the other of a different kind, and observ- 
ing the difference in the milk product. No farmer, unless 
he is very rich, can afford to keep poor milch cows. He 
might almost as well keep a breed of ' naked sheep,' such as 
Swift mentions in Gulliver's Travels. The farmer who raises 
a heife-" calf that is from a poor milker, or of a breed of lit- 
tle value, is as foolish as he would be if in clearing land he 
should burn on the s^round the birch, maple, and w^alnut, and 
save white pine and hemlock for fire wood. And yet many 
sell the calves of the best milch cows to the butchers, be- 
cause such calves are fattest ! 

Those cows which give the greatest quantity of thin milk 
are most profitable for suckling calves, for rich m'^k is said 
not to be so proper food for calves as milk wb'.ch is less 
valuable for dairy purposes. Milk which contains a large 
proportion of cream is apt to clog the stomachs of calves ; 

* See N. E. Farmer, vol. iv. p. 318. 
4# 



4Q THE COMPLETE FARMER 

obstruction puts a stop to their thriving, and sometimes 
proves fatal. For this reason it is best that calves should te 
fed with the milk which first comes from the cow, which is 
not so rich as that which is last d^awn. 

Mr. Russel Woodward, in the Memoirs of the New York 
Board of Agriculture, says, ' I have found that young cows, 
the first year that they give milk, may be made with care- 
ful milking and good keeping to give milk almost any 
length of time required. But if they are left to dry up 
early in the fall, they will be sure to dry up of their milk 
each succeeding year, if they have a calf near the same sea- 
son of the year ; and nothing but extraordinary keeping will 
prevent it, and that but for a short time, I have had them 
dried up of their milk in August, and could not by any 
means make them give milk much beyond that time in any 
succeeding years. "^ 

A writer in the Bath and West of E7igla7id Society''s Pa- 
pers, states that if at any time a good milch cow should go 
dry before her milk is gone, get a young calf and put it to 
her in order to preserve her milk against another year ; for 
it is well known, if a cow goes dry one year, nature will 
lose its power of acting in future. 

Cows should be treated with great gentleness and soothed 
by mild usages, especially when young and ticklish, or when 
the paps are tender ; in which case the udder ought to be fo- 
mented with warm water before milking and touched with 
great gentleness, otherwise the cow will be in great danger 
of contracting bad habits, becoming stubborn and unruly, 
and retaining her milk ever after. A cow never gives down 
her milk pleasantly to a person she dreads or dislikes. The 
udder and paps should be washed with warm water before 
milking, and care should be taken that none of the water be 
admitted into the milking pail. 

The keeping of cows in such a manner as to make them 
give the greatest quantity of milk, and with the greatest 
clear profit, is an essential point of economy. Give a cow 
half a bushel of turnips, carrots, or other good roots per day, 
during the six winter months, besides her hay, and if her 
summer feed be such as it should be, she will give nearly 
double the quantity of milk she would afford if only kept 

* I have two cows now that were milked the first year they had calves 
till near the time of their calving again, and have continued to give milk 
as late ever since if we will milk them.' 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 4B 

during- the winter in the usual manner ; and the milk will 
be richer and of better quality. 

The carrots or other roots, at nineteen cents a bushel, 
amount to about eighteen dollars ; the addition of milk, 
allowing it to be only three quarts a day for three hundred 
days, at three cents a quart, twenty-seven dollars. It should 
be remembered, too, that when cows are thus fed with roots 
they consume less hay, and are less liable to several diseases, 
which are usually the effects of poor keeping.=^ 

The keeping of cows is very profitable. Allowing one to 
give only six qu,irts a day, for forty v.^eeks in each year, and 
this is not a large allowance, her milk at two cents per quart 
will amount to upwards of thirty-three dollars ; which is 
probably sufficient to purchase her and pay for a year's 
keeping.^ 

' A farmer some years since kept eighteen cows on a com- 
mon, and was often obliged to buy butter for his family. 
The common was inclosed, and the same person supplied his 
family amply w^ith milk and butter from the produce of four 
cows well kept. 

' Great mi^.kers seldom carry much flesh on their bones, 
but they pay as they go and never retire in our debt. The 
difficulties in cow keeping are these : the expense of their 
food is considerable, more especially with respect to any 
which must be purchased, and if the produce be inconsidera- 
ble it may be a losing concern. You may be feeding a 
sparing milker into flesh, and if you stint her or allow her 
only ordinary food you get neither flesh nor milk.'t 

Amateurs in this line should procure the largest milkers, 
and I had almost said give them gold, could they eat it. In 
this case it may be depended on, milk is always of more value 
than the best cow-food ; and a cow, the natural tendency of 
w^hich is to breed milk, will convert all nourishment, however 
dry and substantial, into that fluid; in fact will require such 
solid kind of nourishment to support her strength and induce 
her to take the bull.t 

Keep no more cows than you can keep well ; one cow well 
fed will produce as much milk as two indifferently treated, 
and more butter ; and if the cow be wintered badly, she will 
rarely recover, during the succeeding summer, so as to be- 
come profitable to the feeder. Cows should by all means be 
housed in extreme weather, and particularly those which 

* Farmer's Assistant. f Blowbray on Poultry, &c. 



44 THE COMPLETE FARMER ■■ 

give milk, or a failure in the quanJty of milk will be expe-' 
rienced. Wherefore, instead of keeping twenty cows poorly 
fed and but half of them stabled, sell ten and give the re-4 
mammg ten food in amount equal to what the twenty ori-' 
ginallyhad; procure constant stabling for them, and you 
will receive quite as much milk and butter in return as ^\-as 
derived from the former mode of treating twenty. Sweet 
potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, and ground oats, are unques-| 
tionably among the best articles for food for milch cattle; 
and they occasion the milk and butter to assume a fine flavor 
and color, as well as increase of quantity.^ 1 

Wi7iter food for Cows. Mr. Chabert, the director of the' 
vetermary schools of Alfort, had a number of cows which 
yielded very great quantities of milk. In hie publications 
on the subject he observed that cows fed in winter on dry 
substan.;es give less milk than those which are kept on a 
green diet, and also that their milk loses much of its quality. 
He published the following receipt, by the use of which his 
cows afforded him an equal quantity and quality of milk 
during the wdnter as during the summer. Take a bushel of 
potatoes, break them while raw, place them in a barrel 
standing up, putting in successively a layer of potatoes and 
a layer of bran, and a small quantity of yeast in the middle 
of tne mass, which is to be left thus to ferment during a 
whole week, and when the vinous taste has pervaded the 
whole mixture, it is then given to the cows, who eat it 
greedily. 

Pure Avater is an essential article for cows. Dr. Anderson 
says he knew a man who acquired great wealth by attention 
to things of this nature, and one of his principal discoveries 
was the importance of having a continued supply of the 
purest water which could be obtained for his cows, and he 
would on no account permit a single animal to set his foot 
m It, nor allow it to be tainted even by the breath of ani- 
mals. 

Parsnips cause cows to give milk in abundance, and that 
ot the best quality. 

Working Cows. An English cv.ltivator, whose observa- 
tions are published in the appendix to Plymley's Survey of 
Shropshire, says, ' Cows are fattened easier and are better 
laborers than oxen. The uses of cattle are to work, milk, 
and latten. I have seen barren cows work as well as oxen ; 



* Trentcn Emporium. 



I 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 40 

they require less keep and ivalk faster. When first I com- 
menced farmer, I followed the example of my predecessor in 
feeding chiefly oxen ; but I soon found that cows fattened 
much faster, and on less meal, and for some years past I 
have carefully avoided having any oxen In my stalls.' 

Cows which are shortly expected to calve ought to be 
lodged at night in some convenient place under cover for a 
week or two before calving, as it might be the means of 
saving the life of the calf, and perhaps of t'.e dam likewise. 
The d"^ y and night after a cow has calved she should be kept 
under cover, and her drink should be lukewarm. Let her 
not be exposed for some time to the dampness of the night. 

Cows which are near calving ought to be fed with better 
and more substantial food than usual. Grain of any kind is 
now useful, but it should be crushed, bruised, or coarsely 
ground. If the cleaning of a cow after calving be delayed, 
it may be promoted, according to Deane's New England Far- 
mer, by giving her a pail of warm water with some ashes 
in it; or, according to the Grazier's Guide, the only thing 
to be given is tpast and weak wine, or good cider or perry. 
If wine be preferred, mix it with an equal quantity of water. 
This toast should consist of four pints of wine and water, 
and about a pound and a half of bread toasted. 

Inflamed teats should be washed with two drachms of 
sugar of lead in a quart of water. Should tumors appear, 
apply a common warm mash of bran with a little lard. 

To prevent cows from sucking their own milk, it is said 
that rubbing the teats frequently with the most fetid cheese 
that can be procured is an effectual remedy. 

In order that it may be ascertained what is the proper 
time for cows to go dry previous to their calving, an account 
should be kept of the time when each cow^ is put to bull, so 
that the cow may be dried off in due season. The following 
prescription for drying off cows is given in Monk^s AgricuU 
tural I)ictio?iary. 

Take an ounce of powdered alum; boil it in two quarts 
of milk till it turns to whey ; then take a large handful of 
sage, and boil it in the whey till you reduce it to one quart ; 
rub her udder with a little of it, and give her the rest by 
way of drink ; milk her clean before you give it to her ; 
and as you see need repeat it. Draw a little milk from her 
every second or third day, lest her udder be overcharged. 

Cmo-kouse or Stable. The floor under a cow-house should 
be very tight, so that none of the stale may be lost, which, 



46 THE COMPLETE FARMER , 

when mixed with other substances, is of great value as ma- 
nure. The most healthy stables are those which are open 
to the east, or have an eastern aspect. It is a common 
practice to build them too close. The stajle should never , 
be completely closed up, however cold the weather may be, 
although it is desirable that strong draughts of cold or damp 
air should be guarded against, especially in winter. It may • 
be held as a general rule that stables or cow-houses are too i 
close when on entering the breath is affected, or any smell i 
of urine can be perceived. 

It is also very important to keep cow-houses or cattle | 
stables clean and well littered. Dung left in stables soon ! 
renders the air unwholesome, and is the cause of disorders. \ 
Cows in a stable should be allowed a square space of at 
least six feet each way for each cow. Two or three venti-j 
lators near the ground on the north side afford, at a triflinJ 
expense, an excellent way of renewing or sweetening the aii! 
in stables in the summer time, and on the south side in win- 
ter, without occasioning draughts ; and these may be shut 
when necessary by means of straw, or, what is better, a slid- 
ing door. 

It is of no small importance that the floor of a cow-house 
be very tight, so that none of the stale be lost, which is of 
great value as manure, when mixed with other substances. 
A farmer might as well lose the dung us the urine of his 
beasts. 

' The common cattle stalls of our country are so ill con- 
trived, and so straitened in their dimensions, that the cat- 
tle are constrained to lie down in part in their own duno-. 
Th's dries and forms a thick coat on their hind quarters, 
from which they are not relieved till they shed their hair in 
the spring. They are thus rendered uncomfortable. To be 
uncomfortable is to suffer some degree of pain ; and no one 
will suppose that animals in pain can thrive, or preserve their 
plight with the same food equally with others perfectly at 
ease. Even hogs, though prone to wallow in the mire in 
warm weather, are always pleased with a dry bed, and thrive 
best when kept clean. "^ 

The following, from the Memoir's of the Pennsylvania 
Agi-icultural Society, is extracted from a letter from R. Smith 
to J. H. Powel, and will be of use in directing the most 
economical mrnagement of dairy cattle. 



* Colonel Pickerinsr. 



AND RURAL ECONOM.IST. 47 

My barn is constructed according to the best Pennsylva- 
nia models. The yard is to the south of it. On the east 
and west sides are cow stables, containing one hundred and 
ten well made stalls, ventilated by a sufficient number of 
windows and double doors. At the tails of each range of 
cows there is a drain made of strong pkmks, and so fixed us 
to receive all their dung and urine. These several drains 
have a sufficient declivity to carry all the fluid matter to their 
southern terminations, where they intersect similar drains, 
which convey all this liquid manure into a cistern, fifty feet 
long. This cistern is so placed and constructed as to receive 
not only the urine of the stables, but also the liquid matter 
of the farm-yard. In it there is a pump, by means of which 
its contents are pumped into a large hogshead, fixed on a 
pair of wheels drawn by oxen. To the end ef this hogshead 
is attached a box pierced with holes, into which this liquid 
manure floats through a spigot and faucet, and is then 
sprinkled over the ground as the oxen move forward. 

Food for fatting Cattle^ keeping Stock, (f-c. It has been 
often said, and we believe correctly, that it is not profitable, 
generally speaking, to fatten cattle on any kind of grain. 
Lawrence on Neat Cattle asserts that ' corn [by which is 
meant oats, barley, rye, peas, beans, wheat, &c.] cannot be 
used in the fattening of bullocks and sheep, except in seasons 
of superabundant plenty. Even Indian corn is often too 
costly food to be used solely, or principally, for the profitable 
fattening of cattle ; and grass, hay, and roots are the materi- 
als which true economy requires."^ It is, however, asserted, 
that beef fattened on oil cake, raw potatoes, turnips, &c., 
will not be so firm, nor of so good a quality, other things be- 
ing equal, as that which is fattened on Indian corn. If that 
be true, it might be well to commence feeding with turnips, 
potatoes, &c., and give the animals richer food as they in- 
crease in fatness. 

An able writer says, ' With respect to feeding, the first rule 
is, little at a time, and often ; because experience has shoAvn 
that animals that eat much in a. short time do not fatten so 
well as those which eat less but mure frequently. The se- 
cond rule is to begin the course with cabbage and turnips, 
then to employ carrots and potatoes, and lastly Indian, oat, 
or barley meal. These aliments ought to be varied several 
times a day, and oftener if convenient ; and instead of always 

* See a communication for the N. E. Farmer, vol. i. p. 234. 



I 



48 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

reducing them to a meal, there is advantage in sometimes 
boiling them. A littie salt given daily is very useful.' 

It would be advantageous to the community of farmers if 
sometning like the following experimeiits were made, and 
their results -published. Let a number of cattle of similar or 
the same breed, age, propensity to fatten, as ascertained by 
handling, &c., be fattened at the same time. Let one be 
fed entirely on potatoes raw ; a second on the same root 
steamed or boiled ; a third made one-half or two-thirds fat on . 
potatoes, and his fattening completed with Indian corn; a 
fourth be fattened on Indian corn, or corn m^al ; a fifth bel 
fed with a mixture of all these kinds of food, given together 
in the same mess, or in ditferent messc*;. The first food in 
the morning, for the last-mertioned bullock, might be a small 
quantity of potatoes, pumpkins, or turnips ; the second, ruta 
baga or carrots, mangel-wurzel, or parsnips. Then, as the 
last course of the day's feast, give Indian meal, or other food 
the richest you have. It would be well, likewise, to try the 
virtues of sweet apples. The most important object of such 
experiments, however, would be to ascertain whether the 
beef of cattle fattened on potatoes or other roots, raw or 
boiled or steamed, is equal m quality to that which is fattened 
on Indian corn. If not, whether an ox may not be made 
nearly fat enough for profit on roots and hay, his fatting 
completed on corn, and the flesh be as good as if he had been 
fattened wholly on corn. And if an ox partly fattened on 
roots, and his fattening completed on corn, gives as good beef 
as one wholly fed on co^n, the question occurs, hoio long a 
time will it require to give the beef its good qualities arising 
from the corn ? We know, as respects swine, that farmers 
make them partly fat on any thing which they will devour, 
and then feed them for some time before they are killed with 
Indian corn or meal, to ' harden the flesh,'' r.2 they express it; 
and perhaps the same process will answer for beef cattle. 
Some farmers say that the red or La Plata potato, given 
raw to swine, make as good pork as that which is corn fed. 
Others say that any kind of potatoes, if steamed or boiled, 
will make as good pork as can be made of corn. If this be 
true of pork, it may be so of beef. 

It is a truth which has been confirmed by repeated ex- 
periment, that food for swijie fermented till it becomes a lit- 
tle acid will go farther and fatten them faster than unfer- 
mented food of the same quantity and quality. But it is 
not, I believe, generally known in this country, that acid food 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 49 

is most valuable for neat cattle in certain circumstances. 
Mr. Bordley, (a celebrated American writer on Rural Eco- 
nomy,) however, asserts that oxen made half fat, or in s^ood 
plight, on grass or turnips, are then finished, in France, upon 
a sour food, prepared as follows : rye meal (bu^k wheat or 
Indian meal may be tried) with water is made into paste, 
which in a few days ferments and becomes sour ; this is then 
diluted with water, and thickened with, hay, cut into chaff, 
which the oxen sometimes refuse the first day, but when dry 
they drink and prefer it. All the husbandmen are decidedly 
of opinion that they fatten much better because of the acidity. 
They give it thrice a day, and a large ox eats twenty-two 
pounds a day. Maize [Indian] meal, or maize steeped till it 
is sour, should be tried. This sour mess is given during the 
last three weeks of their fattening, and they eat about seven 
and a half bushels of meal, value four dollars. 

Care should be taken that the process of fermentation be 
not carried too far. The paste should not become mouldy, 
nor the liquid food in the slightest degree putrid. We think, 
moreover, that there is ^ood reason for waitinor till animals 
become ' half fat,' or in good plight, before they are fed vv'ith 
acid food. Acids, like alcohol, create appetite by stimulat- 
ing the sto.nach, but if long continued they weaken the di- 
gestive powers, and in time entirely destroy the tone of the 
stomach. The animal will then be visited with what in a 
human subject would be called dyspepsia, or a want of the 
power of digestion ; fattening him will be out of the ques- 
tion, and he will be worth but little more than the value of 
his hide. The constitution of an ox may be destroyed by 
excessive eating, and it is only towards the close of his cays, 
near the last stage of his preparation for the butcher, that 
he should be allowed to become an epicure, and indulged 
with as much as he can eat of rich and high seasoned food. 

Store keep should neither be too rich nor too abundant ; 
and if an ox is once made fat and then loses his flesh, he is 
like one of Pharaoh's lean kine, the more he devours the 
leaner he becomes. If young cattle are kept in rich pastures 
in summer and poor fodder in winter, sometimes stuffed, at 
other times starved, they lose their disposition to fatten. To 
such cattle Mr. Lawrence alludes, when he says, ' It is ex- 
tremely imprudent indolently to continue to keep at high 
food animals which do not thrive ; I advert chiefly to in- 
dividuals with which the first loss is always the least.' 
* Stock cattle,' said Mr. Bordley, ' are kept, others are fatten- 
5 



50 THE COMPLETE FARMER I 

ed. The feeding is different. Cattle kept need no kind of 
grain, nor even hay, unless to cows about calving time. 
Straw, with any juicy food, such as roots or drmnc,^ abun- 
dantly suffice for keeping cattle in heart through the winter, 
provided they are sheltered from cold rains. Mr. Bakewell 
kept his fine cattle on straw and turnips through the winter. 
A drank for ke€pi7ig cattle may be made thus : roots, chaff, 
or cut straAv, and salt, boiled together with a good quantity 
of water ; the roots cut or mashed. The cattle drink the 
water and eat the rest. Drank for fattening- catth, thus: 
roots, meal, flax-seed, chaff, or cut straw, and salt, well boil- 
ed together in plenty of water. If given warm, not hot, the 
better.' The same author says, ' Hay, meal, and linseed jelly 
with drank must be excellent food in stall feeding. Linseed 
jelly is thus made : seven quarts of water to one of flax-seed, 
steeped in a part of the water forty-eight hours, then add the 
remaining water, cold, and boil it gently two hours, stirring 
constantly to prevent burning. It is cooled in tubs, and 
given mixed with any meal, bran, or cut chaff. Each bul- 
lock (large) has two quarts of jelly a day; equal to a little-, 
more than 07ie quart of seed in four days.' fl 

In a tract entitled Notices for a Young Farmer, written 
by the Hon. Judge Peters, formerly president of the Penn- 
sylvania Agricultural society, are the following directions : 

' Cut or chaff your hay, straw, corn tops, or blades, and 
even your stalks, with a straw cutter, and you will save a 
great proportion which is otherwise Avasted or passed through 
the animal without contributing to its nourishment. One 
bushel of chaffed hay at a mess, given in a trough, three 
times in twenty-four hours, is sufficient for a horse, ox, or 
cow. A bushel of chaffed hay, lightly pressed, weighs from 
five to five and a half pounds. A horse or horned beast 
thrives more on fifteen pounds thus given than on twenty- 
four or twenty-five pounds as commonly expended (including 
waste) in the usual manner of feeding in racks ; to which 
troughs, properly constructed, are far preferable.! Salt 
your clover and other succulent, as well as coarse hay. 
But over salting diminishes the nutriment. More than a peck 
to a ton is superfluous. Half that quantity is often sufficient. 
Ten or fifteen pounds is usually an ample allowance. Feed- 



* The word drank is given us by count Rumford for distinffuishinff 
this composition from water. 

t See farther, Straw Cutter, under the head Agricultural Implements. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 51 

ing your stock by weight and measure of food will not only 
save your provender, by its orderly distribution, but frequent- 
ly save the lives of animals, too often starved by niggardliness 
or neglect, or gorged and destroyed by profusion. If it be 
true, as it is, that the master's eye makes the horse fat, ' it is 
equally so that the master's eye prevents the horse from being 
pampered, wanton, pursive, bloated, foundered, and finally 
wind broken and blind.' 

If hay is salted by using salt in substance, it should be 
done at the time it is deposited in the mow. It is often a 
good practice to sprinkle a solution of salt in water over hay 
or other food for cattle in the winter time, especially if the 
fodder be of an inferior quality. 

Colonel Jaques, of Ten Hills farm, Charlestown, (Mass.) 
has been \:ery successful in the breeding and rearing of neat 
cattle, and recommends from actual experiment the following 
mixture : 

Take Ruta Baga, cut fine, 2 bushels. 

" Wheat bran, 1 bushel. 

" Powdered oil cake, J bushel. 

" English hay, barley straw, and 

salt hay, cut, of each, 7 bushels. 

" Water, 10 gallons. 

Let them be perfectly mixed. Give a bushel of the mix- 
ture to a cow of the common size every night and morninor, 
and proportionably to greater or smaller animals. 

On soiling laboring Oxen aiid Horses. By soiling do- 
mestic animals, is meant keeping them in yards, &:c., and 
cutting and giving them grass, with or without other green 
or dry food. Instead of turning your oxCn and horses, 
which you have occasion to use frequently, into a pasture, 
perhaps adorned with thickets of brushwood, in which the 
animals may hide themselves beyond the reach of a search 
warrant, you had better soil them, and thus have them al- 
ways at hand. You must be careful that they are always 
well supplied with water, and plenty of litter to absorb the 
liquid manure, unless you have reservoirs, &c. to answer the 
purpose of preventing its waste. The famous cultivator 
Arthur Young observed that lucerne is the best plant for 
soiling, and an acre of it will go farther than any thing else. 
But clover or any other grass, green or dry, butts of Indian 
corn cut up near the roots, cabbages, &c., &c., may often be 
economically disposed of in soiling cattle or horses whose 
services are requisite for the daily and hourly labors of the 



II 



52 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

husbandman. But soiling on a large or general plan will 
not soon, if ever, be adopted in New England, where there 
are so many thousands of acres of pasture land which are 
fit for nothing but grazing. 

Cooking Food for Cattle. Among the most useful im- 
provements of modern husbandry, may be numbered the 
practice of steaming or boiling food for domestic animals. 
Some account of the origin of this practice in Great Britain 
may be found in the Complete Grazier, an English work 
of reputation, from which we have made the following ex- 
tracts. 

' Steamed food may be given to milch cows to great ad- 
vantage. For this important fact in rural economy we are 
indebted to the ingenious and persevering experiments of J. 
C. Curwin, Esq., M. P., whose attention to the comforts of 
his tenants, and judicious zeal for the improvement of agri- 
culture, are too well known to require any eulogy. In pro- 
secution of a system which he had long practised of giving 
cooked food to animals, Mr. Curwin turned his attention to 
the cheapest mode of supplying milch cows with it ; and in 
a communication to the society for the Encouragement of 
Arts, &c., (which was honored with their lesser gold medal,) 
he stated his belief that he has at length been completely 
successful. He uses a steam boiler of 100 gallons' contents,* 
on each side of which are fixed three boxes, containing eleven 
stonest each of chaff, (the husks of wheat, rye, &c.,) which 
by being steamed gain more than one-third of their original 
weight. The steam is conveyed by various cocks into the 
lower part of the boxes ; and thus two or three boxes may 
be steamed at the same time. The quantity of fuel required 
was about two pounds for each stone of chaff. 

' In giving the steamed chaff to the cattle, two pounds of 
oil cake were mixed with one stone of chaff; and the milch 
cows are fed with it morning and evening, having an allow- 
ance of one stone at each time. On being taken from the 
steamer the food is put into wooden boxes, which are mount- 
ed on wheels, to be drawn to the place where it is intended 
to be used ; and the chaff requires to stand some time before 
it is fit for use. 

' The average milk on a stock of thirty-six milch cows was 

* An engraving of it is given in the thirtieth volume of the society's 
Transact' on s. 
f Fourteen pounds a stone. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 53 

nearly thirteen wine quarts for 320 days. The cows were 
never suffered to be turned out ; and to prevent their being 
lame, their hoofs were properly pared, and they stood with their 
fore feet on clay. One great advantage attending this method 
was, that most if not all the milch cows were in such a con- 
dition, that with a few weeks' feeding, after they were dry, 
they became fit for the shambles, with very little loss from 
the first cost. As a substitute for chaff and oil cake, Mr. 
Curwin recommends cut hay; which, when steamer!, would 
make very superior food, and he entertains no doubt would 
greatly augment the milk as well as the health of the ani- 
mals.' 

An apparatus for steamins: food for cattle should be con- 
sidered a necessary appendage of every arable and dairy 
farm of a-moderate size. The advantage of preparing dif- 
ferent sorts of roots, as well as even grain, chaff, and hay, 
by means of steaming apparatus, for the nourishment of cat- 
tle, begins now to be gencrp.lly understood. It has been long 
known that many sorts of roots, and particularly the potato, 
become much more valuable by undergoing this sort of pre- 
paration. And it is equally well known that when thus pre- 
pared they have been employed alone as a substitute for grain, 
with cut chaff for hay and grain, in the feeding of horses 
as well as other animals. To a farmer who keeps horses or 
cattle, or even swine or poultry, the practice of boiling their 
food in steam is so great a saving and advantage, that it de- 
serves the most particular attention. Though potatoes have 
often been given raw both to horses and cattle, they are 
found to be greatly preferable when cooked by steam, as they 
are thereby rendered much drier and more nutritive, and bet- 
ter than when boiled in water ; this has been long since 
shown by the experiments of Wakefield, of Liverpool, who, 
in order to ascertain it, fed some of his horses on steamed 
and some on raw potatoes, and soon found the horses fed on 
the steamed potatoes had greatly the advantage in every re- 
spect. Those fed on steamed potatoes looked perfectly 
smooth and sleek, while the others were qviite rough. 

A steaming machine on a simple and economical plan con- 
sists of a boiler, and a wooden chest or box, placed over or 
near it. The box may be of any size, and so placed as to 
be supplied and emptied by wheel or hand- barrow: in the 
easiest manner, either by the end or top, or both, being made 
to open. If the box is made eight feet by five, and three feet 
deep, it will hold as many potatoes as will feed fifty cows 
5# 



54 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

for twenty-four hours, and these may be steamed in an 
hour.^ 

The practice of cooking food for cattle is by no means a 
novelty in New England. A simple apparatus for this pur- 
pose much used is as follows : 

A kettle, holding twelve gallons or more, is set in a fur- 
nace of brick or stone, and over this a hogshead with one 
head taken out and the other bored full of holes. This is set 
so close that the steam of the kettle, when boiling, can only rise 
through the holes, end thence ascend among the articles to 
be boiled in the hogshead, and pass off at the top. In this 
way a hogshead of potatoes will be nearly as soon boiled 
as a small part of them could be if placed in the kettle un- 
derneath. 

As the kettle is so closed as to prevent any steam from 
passing off but through the bottom of the hogshead, a pipe 
or tube is set in such a manner that with the aid of a funnel 
water may be poured into the kettle as often as is necessary. 
After the water is poured in, the tube is stopped with a plug 
for that purpose. 

Grain of all kinds may be steam I oiled to great advantage 
for feeding and fattening cattle ; but in that case it is requi- 
site to have the bottom of the ho/rshead covered with a cloth, 
to prevent the grain from running down through the holes. 

In the fifth volume of the N. E. Farmer, p. 306, are some 
notices of the use made of steam in preparing food for cat- 
tle, in a letter from R. Smith, Esq., president of the Mary- 
land Agricultural society, on the management of dairy cat- 
tle, &;c., to John Hare Powel, Esq. 

' For the purpose of augmenting the quantity and improv- 
ing the quality of the food of my stock of every kind, I have 
established a steaming apparatus. It consists of a boiler and 
two wooden boxes, in which boxes is steamed the food. 
These boxes contain each eighty bushels. By this simple 
apparatus every species of coarse vegetable offal is converted 
into nourishing food, and all the ordinary provender is ren- 
dered more nutritious. 

' In the dairies near Philadelphia, it is well known, that 
sweet butter of the first quality cannot be made but from 
cream quickly produced from fresh milk, and that whenever 
the milk remains many days to produce its cream, such 



I 



*For a simple apparatus for stearning food for cattle and swine, see a 
cut under the head Agricultural Implements. 



I 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 55 

cream acquires an unpleasant taste that is imparted to the 
butter. 

' Since the month of January, 1823, my dairy peo;-le have 
been in the practice of always placing the pans ^ontiining 
the milk in water simmering hot. The oily parts which 
constitute the cream are by such heat separated from the 
other ingredients, and then, from their specific lightness, they 
of course ascend to the top in the form of cream. Cream 
is thus obtained durimg the coldest weather in winter in the 
cours« of about twelve hours after the milk has been taken 
from the cows. And the operation of churning such cream 
never exceeds twenty-five minutes. The milk pans remain 
in the hot water about thirty minutes. The butter has in- 
variably been of a fine flavor, and of a beautiful yellow color ; 
and, in the nature of things, it never can be otherwise, unless 
the dairy woman should be utterly ignorant of the art of 
making sweet butter. 

' It may not be amiss to state to you that the skim-milk 
under this process is a very pleasant beverage. In summer 
and winter it bears the agitation of a carriage without becom- 
ing sour. And every morning through the year a person 
comes to the farm and takes from 250 to 300 quarts, for 
which he pays two cents per quart, cash, and on the same 
day he retails the whole among the people of the town, at 
three cents per quart. 

' The hot water in which the milk pans are placed is con- 
tained in large flat wooden vessels, attached to a stove. The 
water is heated by means of a flat tube fastened to the side, 
and near to the bottom of each vessel, and introduced through 
an aperture into the stove. The heat of the stove affords 
the additional advantage of preserving in the dairy house 
the requisite temperature during the winter season. 

* The dairy house is a stone building, consisting of three 
spacious apartments for the preservation of the milk, the 
cream, and the butter, and for the making of the butter. 
Two of these apartments are under ground and arched, and 
properly ventilated. To the south side is attached a con- 
venient shed, with the requisite shelves, and with a copper 
boiler for washing and keeping in good and sweec condition 
all the dairy utensils. In front is a pent house.' 

Jesse Buel, Esq., recommends using a boiler instead of a 
wooden vessel for cooking food for swine. He observes, ' I 
have thrown by my steamer for hog food and substituted a 
boiler. The former consisted of a sixty gallon cask, over a 



m 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



potash kettle badly set. I could only work off four or five 
casks a day, with great labor and trouble, and the apparatus 
required to be luted with clay at every operation. With my 
new kettle, holding thirty gallons, which is a thin and beautiful 
casting, I have cooked eight and nine barrels in half a day, 
iind much better than by the steam process. This food con- 
sists of small refuse potatoes, of which I have nearly 100 
bushels, or fifteen per cent of my whole crop, pumpkins, and a 
small quantity of Indian meal. A half day's boiling serves 
my hog family for four or five days ; and it is always kept 
prepared in adi^ance. The actual expense of fattening hogs 
thus, upon the refuse of the farm crop, is fifty to seventy-five 
per cent, less than feeding with dry corn. 

' The economy of my apparatus consists much in setting 
the boiler so as to have all the advantage of the fire. The 
interior brick work is made to conform" to the shape of the 
boiler, leaving an interval of four to six inches between them 
for the fire, round the whole exterior of the kettle, with the 
exception of a few inches at top, where the flange or rim 
rests upon the projecting bricks. Thus the boiler is not only 
encompassed by the flame, but the heat is augmented by ra- 
diation from the brick work. The fuel is burnt on a grate, 
which extends nearly to the kettle, four or five inches above 
the level of its bottom. My boiler being in operation while 
I am preparing these remarks, I have ascertained that a ket- 
tle of potatoes with three pails of cold water, covered with 
boards, has been completely boiled in eighteen minutes from 
the time they were put in, another boiling having been just pre- 
viously taken out. My kettle was set by a son in his teens, 
without assistance, and was his first effort in masonry.' 

In cooking for cattle, however, when hay and other bulky 
articles of food are prepared by heat, steam will be found 
the best medium. Care should be taken to make the vessel 
in which the steaming is effected so tight that the steam 
cannot escape till it becomes quite hot and elastic. A cover 
of good weight sitting close, but capable of being raised a 
little by steam of high pressure, may be made to operate 
like a safety valve, and at the same time confine the steam 
till it exceeds 212 degrees, the heat of boiling water. Any 
food is better when cooked by steam of a high temperature, 
than when merely soaked in an artificial fog, not much 
warmer than a mist which caps the hills on a summer's 



morning. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 57 

CALVES. Calves designed for veal should be taken from 
the cow the next day after they are calved. They should 
be permitted to suck only two teats during the first week, 
three during the second, and should have the whole of the 
milk the third and fourth week, at the end of which time 
they will be fit to kill. The teats not allowed to be sucLeJ 
should be previously milked. 

When calves are to be reared, some permit them to run 
with the cow, and take all the milk the first season. But 
fine animals are raised without taking any milk from the cow 
after three or four days. They should have more or less 
milk for about twelve weeks. They may be fed with skim- 
med milk or water gruel after the first fortnight ; or hay 
tea maybe mixed with their milk, or their milk may be mix- 
ed with meal and water. After a calf has sucked or drank 
milk for the space of a month, take some fresh and sweet 
hay, and put small locks of it into cleft sticks, in such a 
manner that the calf can easily have access to them, and he 
will soon learn to eat hay. 

Whether calves are intended to be fattened or to be rear- 
ed, it is best to feed them three times a day. B''t whether 
they are fed two or three times, the intervals between their 
meals should be regular, and as nearly as possible equi-distant. 

The method for rearing calves pursued by Mr. Crook, as 
mentioned in ' The Letters and Papers of the Bath and 
West of England Society,'' is as follows : He purchased three 
sacks of linseed, valuf^ 9/. 2^^., (equal tu about nine dollars,) 
which lasted him three years. One quart of seed was boiled 
in six quarts of water for ten minutes, to a jelly, which was 
given to the calves three times a day mixed with a little hay 
tea. And he states that his calves throve much belter than 
those of his neighbors, which were fed with milk. Thus it 
seems that less than eighteen cents' worth of flax-seed, with 
a trifle of hay, is sufficient for one calf. Linseed oil cakes, 
when pulverized and boiled, make an equally good broth or 

jelly- 

If skim-milk is given to calves it should be boiled, and 
suffered to stand till it cools to the temperatui-e of that first 
given by the cow. It is better foiled than when warmed 
only. If the milk be given too cold it will cause the calf to 
purge. If this is the case, put two or three spoonfuls of 
runnet into the milk, and it will stop the looseness. If the 
calf is bound, pork broth is said to be a goou and safe thing 
to put into the milk. 



58 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

Dr. Deane was of opinion that it was better to wean 
calves on hay than on grass. ' They are more docile when 
raised in the barn, and thrive better.' A Mr. John Gordon 
says that ' calves should not be suffered to eat any grass the 
first year, and from experience I find it much the cheapest to 
keep them shut up and feed them, as the land sufficient to 
pasture one will produce hay enough to feed two calves 
through the year, and pay the expense of cultivation, and 
one year's growth will certainly be added to the cattle.^ 
^ , It is not probable, however, that many of our farmers will 
incur the trouble of raising calves in a barn; therefore, 
'when calves are put in a pasture, it should be such as is' 
dry and sweet. White clover is the best for them ; red clo- 
ver or trefoil is also good. Mr. L. Hommedieu recommends 
^at there be no water in the pasture, but sufficient shade. 
The effect of this is that the calves learn to feed at night, or 
when the dew is on, and lie by in the day ; and as the grass 
while wet with dew is believed to be most nourishing, they 
will in this way thrive much better than those which have 
free access to water; for this, it is contended by Mr. L. 
Hommedieu, has a tendency to stunt them, and make them 
pot-belhed. Probably the better way is, to 2five them a little 
nourishing drmk at certain times, when the"^ dews fail, or at 
mid-day, when the weather is very warm.'t 

The best calves for bringing up are those calved early in 
the season, or before June. ' When calves are weaned, they 
should not be suffered ;o be with their dams any more till 
fall ; neither should they be pastured within sight or hear- 
ing of them. It will cause them to neglect their feeding; 
and they will not forget their sucking. 

At the setting in of cold nights in autumn, calves must be 
nightly housed ; and not be out early in the mornino-, nor 
late in the evening. And as the pinching cold of winter will 
be extremely detrimental to them, they should be kept very 
warm in their house, well supplied with water, and let out 
only on the warmest days. A great deal of care is necessa- 
ry to bring them through the first winter, which is the most 
dangerous period of their lives. They will acquire so much 
strength during the following summer that they will have 
nothing to fear from the cold of a second winter. '~Buf on 
Histoire Naturelle. ' 

Ihe American Farmer gives the following method of 

* Mass. Agr. Rep. vol. v. p. 78. f Farmer's Assistant. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 59 

making hay tea for calves. Take about a pound of red clover 
hay, well got in, and six quarts of clear spring water ; boil 
them together till the water is reduced to four quarts ; then 
take out the hay and mix a pound of barley, oat, bean, [or 
Indian] meal amongst a little water, put it in the pot or 
cauldron while boiling, and keep it constantly stirring un il 
it is thickened. Let it cool, then give it to the calf, adding 
as much whey as will make a sufficient meal. 

To make; calves lie quiet, more especially during a tempo- 
rary scarcity of milk, balls made of wheat flour, and a suffi- 
cient quantity of gin to form it into a paste, are recommend- 
ed by Mr. Marshall ; three balls about the size of walnuts 
to be given about a quarter of an hour before each meal. 
The effect is, that instead of wasting themselves by incessant 
'bawling,' they lie quiet, sleeping a principal part of the 
time. Probably, Indian or rye meal, mixed up with gin, 
whiskey, or other cheap spirit, might answer a good purpose 
as an occasional expedient. We should not advise, however, 
to often diet calves in that manner, unless they were intended 
for the butcher ; for we should be apprehensive that feeding 
them with such nice messes would render them too delicate 
and mealy mouthed to become hardy and profitable cattle. 
Young advises, when calves are troubled with scouring, to 
give them powdered chalk and wheat meal, worked into a 
ball with gin. 

The following is the mode of rearing calves adopted by 
the society denominated Shakers, in Canterbury, New 
Hampshire, communicated in a letter from Mr. Francis 
Winkley to Mr. Levi Bartlett, of Warren, New Hampshire, 
and published in the New England Farmer, vol. ii. p. 305. 

' We let calves that come in the fore part of March suck 
about a week or ten days, then take them from the cow, giv- 
ing them a moderate allowance of new milk to drink, till 
they have learned to drink it freely ; then put in some skim- 
med milk ; and we feed them wholly with skimmed milk, 
taking care to give it at about the temperature of milk taken 
directly from the cow, by heating a part of it and mixing it 
with the rest. Care should be taken not to scald the milk 
when heated ; also not to give them any sour milk, for this 
will make them scour. The trough or vessel in which they 
drink their milk should likewise be kept clean, and not suf- 
fered to become sour. 

' We let the milk stand about twelve hours before it is 
skimmed ; giving a calf at first about four quarts night and 



60 THE COMPLETE FARMEK '^Hf 

morning ; increasing the mess as need requires till he is sis 
weeks old, from which time till ten weeks old he will re- 
quire, perhaps, about twelve quarts per day. 

' When about ten weeks old, we begin to diminish the quan- 
tity of r ilk for about the space of two or three weeks, at | 
which time we wean them. During the whole process from 
two to fourteen weeks of age, calves should be well supplied 
with good hay, salt, and provender ; such as oats, wheat 
bran, and oil cake, ground fine. 

' The particular advantages to be derived from the above 
method of treatment are the following : 

' 1. It is much cheaper than to let them suck in the ordi- 
nary way ; whereas it makes a great saving af cream for 
butter, and that without injuring the calves, if they are pro- 
perly attended to. 

' 2. It prevents calves from moaning or pining so much 
while weaning, as they would otherwise do, when taken from 
the cows. 

' 3. It not only prevents the cows being injured in conse- 
quence of the calves biting the teats, but also prevents their 
holding back the milk from the milker, which often serves to 
diminish the quantity of milk afterwards. 

' The only disadvantage to be found in the above method 
of treatment is, that it requires some more labor to feed 
them, where they thrive equally well in every respect as those I 
do which are permitted to suck in the ordinary way.' I 

The following is fnm the United States Gazette. f 

' Among the modern improvements in farming, the dairy 
has of late years been very much neglected. So much of 
the profit of breeders depending upon the facility with which 
the milk of the cow may be reserved during the sucking time 
of the calf, the following substitute, used in Germany, for 
the natural food of the young progeny, maybe acceptable to 
our country readers. 

' Let as much water be heated on the fire as the calf will 
be disposed to drink, and when it boils throw one or two 
handfuls of oat meal^ into it, and after continuing in that 
state for one minute, take it off, and let it be cooled to the 
temperature of new milk, when one or two pints of skim- 
med milk are to be added to it. With this beverage, the 
young animal will fatten and thrive prodigiously : the milk 
olP=the parent will be applied to the dairy, and the intelligent 

* Indian meal will do as well. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 61 

farmer will immediately discover the great advantage to be 
derived in the produce of the dairy from such an expedient.' 

WilJich's Encyclopedia observ^es, ' In order to make calves 
fine and fat, the best and most efficacious way is, to keep 
them as cleai: as possible, by elevating their coops in such a 
manner that the sun may not have too great power over 
them, and to such a height above the level of the ground 
that their urine may pass off; by giving them fresh litter 
every day, and suspending over the coop a large chalk-stone, 
so that they can easily lick it. Besides this, it is usual to 
bleed them when they are about a month old, and again just 
before they are slaughtered; which practice tends in a con- 
siderable degree to the beauty and whiteness of the flesh, 
and is therefore more frequently repeated by some farmers ; 
[in England ;] but this is not altogether necessary ; twice 
bleeding being fully sufficient for that purpose, in the opinion 
of the most experienced breeders. It is, however, to be ob- 
serve ], that those calves w^hich are intended for bulls or for 
oxen should be selected as soon as possible ; as the operation 
necessary to make them oxen should not be deferred till the 
calves are more than twenty days old. 

A writer for the N. E. Farmer, with the signature S. X., 
vol. viii. p. 76, observes, that ' A very intelligent practical 
farmer states that he considers nothing more conducive to 
the thriving of sucking calves than to keep in their pen an 
ample supply of dry yellow loam, of which they are at liberty 
to eat freely as they choose. They will eat it eagerly, and 
he regards it of more value than Indian meal. There is no 
better evidence of its utility than the fact that no man's calves 
find a readier sale or bring a higher price in our market than 
his. The philosophy of it we do not pretend to explain.' 

Moubray says, ' The calf may be sold (or taken from the 
cow) as soon as it has drawn the biestings or first milk, un- 
less any coring or defect in the cow's udder or teats may 
render it desirable for the calf to suck a few days, in order 
that the action may clear off any obstructions, for which the 
butting of the calf's head is generally the best remedy. If 
intended to be fattened for the butcher, it must be kept in a 
pen particularly dry and clean ; suckled twice a day at regu- 
lar hours ; always have the first, which is the thinnest of 
the milk, and not be permitted to overcharge its stomach. 
Lumps of soft chalk are usually placed for the calf to lick, 
as an absorbent to neutralize the acidities engendered in the 
6 



62 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

Stomach from feeding on milk. It seldom pays to fatten a 
calf beyond ten or twelve weeks. 

' Weaning aiid rearing Calves. A calf may be weaned by 
being gradually accustomed to suck milk in a pail through 
the fingers. Many are reared on very little milk mixed with 
hay tea, linseed, or other slops ; fed on straw in thj winter, 
and in summer on the common : such cannot be expected to 
turn to much account. The best cattle are reared from the 
teats, well wintered in good shelter, and full fed until they 
attain their growth. Warmth and dry lodging are of the 
utmost consequence to the improvement of all young ani- 
mals. Calves may, however, be reared to good profit by 
being suffered to suck a very moderate quantity daily, the 
bulk of their food consi&ting of skimmed milk, thickened 
with oat or wheat meal ; their winter food being carrots or 
Swedish turnips sliced, and cut straw, with a small quantity 
of hay, daily.' 

The Grazier's Guide observes, ' If the calf be intended 
for the butcher, it may be taken from the cow in about a 
week or ten days, and fed the remainder of the time by 
hand ; but the time of taking the calf away must be deter- 
mined by the state of the cow's udder ; for unless that be 
free from kernels and indurations, the calf must be allowed 
to suck, as the jolting of its head is the means of healing or 
restoring the udder, and preventing the downfall or inflam- 
mation in this part, which might cause much trouble, and 
even endanger the life of the cow. 

' But if the calf is intended to be reared, it should not be 
weaned until at least six weeks or even two months old, 
whether male or female. For such there is no food like the 
cow's mifk ; and if she does not yield a sufficient quantity, 
that of another ought to be had recourse to. It is an incon- 
trovertible fact, that the longer a calf sucks, not only the 
larger and stronger will it become, but it will also acquire a 
much better form and more robust health.' 

Calves which come early should be preferred for the rear- 
ing. Those which come late do not acquire sufficient 
strength to bear the cold of winter ; they languish, and are 
reared with difficulty. Calves should not be weaned too 
suddenly, but by little and little. The less they are able to 
eat, the more they should be allowed to s\ick ; after a while 
they may be brought to take it from the pail. This is done 
by placing the hand in the milk, with the palm upwards, and 
under the milk, while the finorers are raised above the sur- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 63 

face of the milk for the calf to lay hold of with its mouth, 
which it does very readily, and sucks up the milk with great 
ease. 

When they are completely taken away, they should be 
fed with a little bran, and some of the best soft and fragrant 
hay of the second crop; they should be allowed plenty of 
the skimmed milk, and now and then a little water in which 
barley has been boiled and broken up, or a little buttermilk 
occasionally. There is at first some difficulty in bringing 
them to drink, but a little perseverance will accustom them 
to it. 

Moderate warmth and dry lodging are of the utmost con- 
sequence to young calves ; and if we would turn them to 
any good account, they must not be stinted either in these 
or in their food. Calves which have recently been weaned 
and are not at pasture should be fed often, at least three 
times, and it is better five times a day. As soon as they are 
fit to follow the mother they should be let out, as they are 
greatly benefited by air and exercise. Calves sometimes ac- 
quire a habit of sucking one another, of which trick they 
may be broken by separating them. 

Calves cannot be kept too clean, nor have fresh litter too 

en. If they are suffered to lie on their own dung and 
urine, they will become mangy, and scarcely ever thrive. 
They are subject to several disorders, such as diarrhcea, 
dysentery, costiveness, &c. As a means of preventing the 
greater number of the diseases to which they are liable, the 
following rules are prescribed in the Farmer's and Grazier^s 
Guide. 

1st. Let the young calf suck the first milk. This will 
cleanse its bowels, and prevent costiveness. 

2d. Let it suck from its mother at least two months, and 
then wean it gradually. 

3d. Let its first food be such as is easy of digestion, and 
let it have plenty of sweet skimmed milk and good hay. 

4th. Keep it very clean, well rubbing it occasionally with 
a wisp of hay or straw. 

5th. Keep its stable clean, and perfectly free from all im- 
purities. 

6th. Let it have gentle exercise ; the best will be follow- 
ing the mother in the meadow or pasture. 

7th. Do not stint it either in good food or good drink, and 
change its litter often enough to keep it clean, sweet, and 
dry. 



64 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



OXEN. Till oxen are four years old they are usually i 
called steers ; afterwards oxen. The signs of a good ox, ac- 1 1 
cording to Dr. Deane, are these: thick, soft, smooth, and I 
short hair ; a short and thick head ; glossy, smooth horns ; ' ' 
large and shaggy ears; wide forehead; full, black eyes; 
wide nostrils ; black lips ; a thick fleshy neck and large 
shoulders; broad reins; a large belly; thick rump and 
thighs ; a straight back ; a long tail, well covered with hair ; 
short and broad hoofs. The best colors are brown, dark red, 
and brindled. When an ox has completed his eighth year 
he should be fattened. 

If oxen are worked in the yoke in wet weather, their necks 
are apt to become sore. To prevent this a little tallow 
should be rubbed on the parts of the yoke which lie upon 
their necks, and also on the bows. 

The following remarks on the management of working 
oxen are from the N. E. Farmer, vol. vi. p. 191. 

' Do not retard the growth of your beasts of draught, en- 
danger their health, and render them insignificant in the eyes 
of many, by working them hard while youno-. But the 
younger they are inured to light work, the more°docile they 
will generally become. 

'An English Avriter recommends carding oxen, and says 
" the ox, after the sensation becomes familiar, receives plea- 
sure from the operation, and will momentarily forego his 
meal to receive the full enjoyment. His feeder perceives 
^iis, and brushes the part which gives the most pleasure. 
Ihe ox shows his gratitude by wagging his tail ; the feeder 
in return calls him by name, and ingratiates himself with 
him. Ihus not only an intimacy but a mutual affection is 
formed, which at once gives attention to the keeper and do- 
cility to the ox, and renders the labors of both pleasant." 

' Their labor and their fodder ought to be proportioned, 
Uiat their heahh and their spirits may be kept in full tone. | 
i heir coats ought to be sleek ; their hides loose and silky ; I 
the flank should fill the hand, and the shoulder handle mel- i 
low. If they be overworked or underfed, slugiishness 
and disease will inevitably follow. A working ox ouo-ht al- 
ways to he beef, that in case of accident he may be fit for the 
table.' "^ j 

The common mode of working oxen by a yoke has been I 
condemned by many agricultural writers. Mr. Cooper, an I 
Englishman, according to Yoimg^s Eastern Tour, used col- 
lars on oxen as on horses, except that they were buckled on 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 65 

with the narrow and open end downward. They draw in 
harness abreast in pairs, single, or in a line, and walk as fast 
as horses. Mr. Bordley said he ' saw a w^agon in Pennsylva- 
nia drawn by two bulls and two oxen, bridled and geered in 
harness and collars.' 

It appears by a work entitled ' Letters from Cuba,' by Dr. 
Abiel Abbot, that in managing the oxen of that island, the 
yoke is made fast to the horns, ' near the root, behind, so 
that it does not play backw^ard and forward, and gives to the 
oxen a similar but better chance of backing, (as, in teamster's 
phrase, it is called.) I have been astonished at the power 
of those oxen in holding back. There is a short hill in one 
of the streets of this city, at an angle nearly of forty-five de- 
grees. Standing at the foot of it, I saw a cart and oxen ap- 
proaching at the top, with three hogsheads of molasses, and 
the driver fitting on the forward cask. The driver did not so 
much as leave his perch ; the oxen went straight and fear- 
less over the pitch of the hill, and it seemed as if they must 
be crushed to death. The animals squatted like a dog, and 
rather slid than walked to the bottom of the hill. Have we 
any animals that could have done it ? And if they could, 
have we any docile enough to have done it with the driver 
in the cart ? Thus superior is this mode of yoking in hold- 
ing back the load in difficult places. 

' It gives them still more decisive advantage in drawing. 
A fillet of canvas is laid on the front below the horns ; and 
over this fillet the cords pass, and the animal presses against 
the most invulnerable part of his frame ; his head, his neck, 
his whole frame are exerted in the very manner in which he 
exerts his mighty strength in combat. It is the natural way, 
therefore, of availing yourself of this powerful and patient 
animal to the best advantage.' 

A writer for the Genessee Farmer observes, that ' the fre- 
quent abuse of our laboring^ animals by those who receive 
the benefits of their labors, and who ought in return to treat 
them mercifully, has often given me great pain. I have em- 
ployed in the course of my business a great many men and 
teams, both with oxen and horses, and I never yet knew a 
bawling, noisy, whipping teamster who did a great day's 
work ; nor have I scarcely known such a one who kept a 
fat team. The best man who ever did me any labor was a 
good substantial farmer ; his oxen were always fat, and spry 
as colts ; he would never hitch Vnem to any thing which he 
knew^ they could not draw ; of course they were not discou- 
6# 



66 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

raged ; and he hardly ever spoke to them louder than in a 
low tone of common conversation. He would frequently 
talk to them soothingly, and encourage them when he had a 
hard job on hand, which was often the case. After making 
a heavy pull he would sometimes pat them on the back, but 
I rarely ever knew him to strike or worry his team. He 
carried a slender goad with a short lash to guide them with, 
and a mere swing of the whip was sufficient for his purposes. 
I have known several such persons in my life, and I do not 
hesitate to say that any person who so manages his team 
will get more labor at less expense, and with more ease to 
himself, than by the ordinary bawling, whipping method so 
much practised in our country. All the difference with these 
people is, that the one understands and studies the nature and 
disposition of his animals, and the other does not. " An 
even temper and a steady hand" ought to be the teamster's 
motto, the world over.' 

The following valuable observations on the subject of 
breaking steers and colts are extracted from a communication 
written for the Nev/ England Farmer, by Mr. James Walker, 
of Fryeburgh, Maine, and published in that paper, volume xii. 
p. 113. 

' I call my young cattle cLilves till they are one year old. 
I have a little yoke made with a staple and ring in it. I 
tell my little boys to yoke up their calves : a small boy can 
do it, and it is quite a pastime to them ; they being so 
young, are not so strong but that he can manage them with 
ease ; any small stick or twig answers to drive them with, 
and there is no danger of the boy or steers being hurt. 
When he can drive them where he wishes them to go, which 
will soon be the case, he will hitch them to a small piece of 
wood, or if in winter put them to a hand-sled, and drive 
round with that ; they will soon become docile. There is 
no trouble with them afterward, especially if they are yoked 
a few times the second winter ; it makes them fond of their 
mates. Oxen that are trained when young are much more 
pliable and obedient, which adds much to their value : steers 
that run till they are three or four years old are dangerous 
animals to encounter with ; they are always running away 
with the cart or sled whenever there is a chance for them, 
and often serious injury is the result. I would not recom- 
mend working steers hard while young, as it would prevent 
their growth : there is a difference between working them 
and barely trailing them. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 67 

' Colts I begin with very soon after they are foaled ; the 
mare should be bridled and led to the door, and give^. a lit- 
tle salt. When the colt is one or two days old, take him by 
the neck, handle him gently ; he is then so young that he is 
not afraid, if his dam is near by him ; continue this practice, 
and he will very soon become fond of his owner, and will 
come on purpose to be handled after two or three weeks. 
It does not hurt the mare or the colt to use her moderately. 
If you want to go to meeting on the Sabbatli, harness the 
mare into the chaise or wagon, and tie the colt to the arm of 
the carriage ; he may be a little obstinate at first, but in go- 
ing a few rods will be peaceable and very orderly ; if there 
are many other horses about, your colt is always with you : 
if you want to stop at a place any time, let your colt loose; 
he can be taken again without difliculty, and before you start 
off tie your colt again ; in this way tnere is no trouble of 
the colt following other hor?-es away. When they become 
old Cxiough for service, you do not have to run all over the 
pasture for the horses ; they can always be taken with ease. 
Colts trained in this way are completely halter broken. 
When you begin to harness them, they are not frightened at 
the noise of the carriao^e behind them, and are sooner made 
quiet in the harness. It has been a common saying that if 
colts are handled when they are young, it depresses their 
courage, which I am convinced is not the fact. I have 
raised as many horses as most farmers of my age in this vi- 
cinity, and some of them the most spirited I ever saw. The 
above rules I have practised for quite a number of years, and 
can recommend them to others with confidence. It con- 
vinces me of the truth and efficacy of a rule I have found in 
an old book I have, much worn by usage, although yet 
whole — it has been in our family almost a hundred years — 
which says, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old he will not depart from it." Train up beasts 
while young, and I know when they are old they will be 
serviceable to their owners.' 

On training Oxen to hack a Cart. A writer for the Maine 
Farmer, with the signature of A. Teamster, whose communi- 
cation was republished in the N. £. Farmer, vol. xi. p. 353, 
states as follows : 

* I have observed that very little if any attention is paid 
by our farmers to learn their steers to back ; but as they 
become able to draw a very considerable load forward, they 
are often umnercifullv beaten on the head and face becausp 



68 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

they will not back a cart or sled with as large a load as 
they can draw forwards, forgetting that much pains have 
been taken to learn them to draw well forward, but none to 
learn them to push backward. To remedy the occasion of 
this thumping, and the delay, which is always disagreeable, 
as soon as I have learned my steers to be handy, as it is 
called, and to draw forward, I place them on a cart Avhere the 
land is descending in a small degree. In this situation they 
will soon learn with ease to back it ; then I place them on 
level land, and exercise them there ; then I learn them to 
back a cart up land a little rising: the cart having no load 
in it thus far. When I have learned them to stand up to the 
tongue as they ought and back an empty cart, I next either 
put a small weight in the cart, or take them where the land 
rises faster, which answers the same purpose. Thus in a 
few days they can be learned to back well, and know how to 
do it, which by a little use afterwards they will never forget. 
This may appear of little consequence to some, but when it 
is remembered how frequently we want to back a load when 
we are at work with our cattle, and how commodious it often 
is to have our cattle back well, why should we not learn 
them for the time when we want them thus to lay out their 
strength ? Besides, it saves the blows and vexation often 
encountered, which is considerable when one is in haste. 
It is a merciful course towards our brutes. I never consider 
a pair of oxen well broke until they will back with ease any 
reasonable load, and I would give a very considerable sum 
more for a yoke of oxen thus tutored than for a yoke not 
thus trained.' 

Oxen sometimes contract a bad habit of pulling or hauling 
against each other ; and sometimes crowd each other, so as 
to render them almost entirely useless as laborers. It is said 
that by turning them out to feed in the yoke they will learn 
to move in concert, and thus be broken of the habits of pull- 
ing and crowding. 

In the Transactions of the Society of Arts the following 
mode of training oxen to the draught is recommended : ' Put 
a broad strap round their necks, fasten one end to a large 
log of wood ; permit the ox to drag it about as he feeds in 
his pasture, before he is put in harness, by which his docility 
is much forwarded.' If a yoke of oxen were fastened to a 
heavy loaded sled or drag, placed in a pasture, and the oxen 
secured in such a manner that they could not cast or injure 
themselves, and the load were so heavy that they must act 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 69 

in concer* to move it, they would soon learn to pull together, 
and be true to the yoke. Having eaten the grass within 
reach of their first location, they would of necessity ur.ite 
their efforts to remove their load to a fresh spot, and would 
adopt for their motto, united we feed, diridtd we starve. 

Diseases of Cattle. Our limits will not admit of our be'ng 
very copious under this head ; but some of the most common 
ails to which cattle are subject shall be briefly treated of, 
and the remedies prescribed. 

Cattle are apt to be hoven or swollen in consequence of 
having eaten too much green succulent food. The connnon 
remedy for this disorder has been to stab the infected animal 
with a penknife or other sharp instrument under tlie short 
ribs, and put into the orifice a tube of ivory, elder, a quill, 
or something of the kind, to give vent to the confined air. 
The wound is then dressed with some sort of adhesive plas- 
ter, such as Burgundy pitch, and thus in general the cure is 
effected. This, however, according to the Grazier's Guide^ 
is a bad practice ; a second attack becomes more difficult to 
cure, as the wound adheres to the side, and every repetition 
increases the danger. 

The thirty-third volume of Young's Annals of Agriculture 
prescribes the following recipe for hoven cattle, which it 
states will effect a cure in the most desperate cases in half 
an hour. Take three quarters of a pint of olive oil, one 
pint of melted butter or hog's lard ; give this mixture by 
means of a horn or bottle, and if it does not produce a fa- 
vorable change in a quarter of an hour, repeat the same 
quantity, and walk the animal gently about. For sheep at- 
tacked with this malady the dose is from a wine-glass and a 
half to two wine-glasses. 

The following lemedy for this complaint has also been re- 
commended. Make about a pint of lye, either with hot em- 
bers thrown into a sufficient quantity of water, or by dis- 
solving therein about an ounce of pot or pearl-ash, and turn 
it down the throat of the ox or cow affected. A propor- 
tionably less quantity will answer for a sheep. This is said 
to give immediate relief, by neutralizing the carbonic acid 
gas in the stomach of the animal, which causes the swelling 
and other symptoms of the complaint to subside. 

Besides these remedies, flexible tubes and canes, with 
knobs on their ends, tarred rope, whip handles, &c., have 
been used to force a passage from the mouth to the stomach, 
to let the confined air escape upwards from the trunk of the 



70 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

animal affected. Descriptions of some of these instruments 
may be seen in the Domestic Encyclopedia, vol. i. p. 409, 
410. Loudon likewise observes, that ' the flexible tube for 
the relief of cattle that are hoven or choked, consists of a 
strong leathern tube, about four feet long and half un inch 
diameter, with a leaden nozzle, pierced with holes at the in- 
sertion end. It should be kept in every farmery. There is 
a similar one on a smaller scale, which should be kept by 
every shepherd.' 

In turning cattle or sheep into fresh and rank clover or 
lucerne, care should be taken at first to let them remain but 
a short time when the grass is dry, and then turn them out 
again, that they may by degrees become accustom-^d to the 
rich herbage. 

Hoof-ail^ or Hoof Distemper. A writer for the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural Repository, vol. iv. p. 339, gives some 
account of this disorder, from whi^.h we extract the following. 

' Symptoms. When an animal is at all lame, its foot should 
be carefully felt. The first indication is usually an uncom- 
mon degree of warmth, and a soft and puffed feel of the 
parts immediately connected with the slit between the hoof, 
either before or behind the foot, and generally just above it. 
If in the hind foot, and not easily han i^ed, a fulness may 
generally be perceived, by standing behind the animal, and 
carefully comparing the appearance of the two feet between 
the dew-claws and the hoofs, (for it very rarely commences 
its attack on more than one foot.) In the fore foot it gene- 
rally swells forward; and in taking up the foot the slit be- 
tween the hoofs will generally have the appearance of dry- 
ness, easily distinguishable to a person used to cattle ; and 
the animal f equently licks the front part of the foot. In- 
stances frequently occur of sudden and extreme lameness, 
without any appearance of heat or swelling in the foot ; and 
these are often the worst cases ; but one symptom rarely 
fails to accompany the disease, which is extreme restlessness 
and appearance of anguish, attended with loss of appetite 
and flesh, but without in the least affecting the brightness of 
the eye, and, perhaps, sometimes unnaturally increasing it ; 
but the eye has a peculiar cast. As a general rule it is 
safest to attribute all lameness of the foot which cannot be 
traced to a sufficient cause to the hoof-ail. Lameness of the 
foot can generally be distinguished from that of the leg, hip, 
or shoulder, by making the animal step over a stick or rail, 
and carefully watching its motions. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 71 

* Remedies. The foot should be carefully washed and 
cleansed and thoroughly examined, to be sure that the lame- 
ness does not arise from a nail casually run into the foot, or 
a prick in shoeing, from a wound from a stump or other 
substance between the hoofs, (a case frequently occurring.) 
If no appearance occurs of any break in the skin, while the 
foot is still wet apply as near as may be to the centre of the 
slit between the hoofs from one to three grains of corrosive 
sublimate, (reduced to a fine powder,) the dose to be propor- 
tioned to the size of the animal and the violence of the at- 
tack. Care must be used that the powder is put completely 
in this slit, for it is a very strong poison, and the animal as 
soon as at liberty will begin to lick the foot if a sore one. 
The moisture left by the washing makes the powder adhere, 
and the effect is produced in a very short time. Some pre- 
fer mixing the powder with hog's lard, which answers ; but is 
thought less powerful : it has one advantage, however, as 
being less dangerous to keen in a house, (for no one takes 
salve inwirdly.) Where corrosive sublimate cannot be ob- 
tained, any other violent stimulant may be applied. Com- 
mon salt is often effectual in very slight attacks ; but it is 
of the greatest inportance to lose no time. The applictition 
is to be repeated every twenty-four hours till a cure is effect- 
ed, or till the foot shows unequivocal signs of a gathering 
which will break.' 

Loss of the Cud. Rumination, or the chewing of the cud, 
is that motion of the rumex or first stomach by which the 
food is forced back into the mouth to be perfectly masticated. 
This motion is not sudden or violent, like that of vomiting: 
but gradual and gentle, when the animal is healthy. When, 
therefore, an animal ceases to perform this essential act of 
digestion, it is an evident proof that the stomach is out of 
order ; it may depend on the state of the first stomach, or it 
may proceed from the third. 

Loudon asserts that although ' loss of the cud enters into 
the list of most of cow leeches' diseases, it is less a disease 
than a symptom of some other affection ; indeed it is evident 
that any attack sufficient to destroy the appetite will, gene- 
rally, occasion the loss of the cud. It is possible, however, 
that an occasional local affection, or paralysis of the paunch, 
may occur, particularly when it is distended with unhealthy 
substances, as acorns crab-apples, the tops of some of the 
woody shrubs, &c. The treatment in such cases consists in 
stimulating the stomach by tonics, aloes, pepper, and gin, 



72 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

mixed. Though these as liquids may not enter the stomach 
in common cases, yet in this disease or impaired action of 
the rumex they will enter there' 

Mr. Lawrence, an English writer, says, in loss of cud, 
* Let the animal fast some time, then give a warm bran or 
pollard mash, with good hay and warm water with salt. 
This treatment alone may succeed with patience, even should 
the maAV be obstructed with acorns or crab-apples. An aloes' 
tincture made with brandy and ginger, or capsicum, [red 
pepper] might be of use in this case. After conquering the 
obstruction, bitter infusions made of camomile, hoarhound, 
oak bark, &c. in beer may be required, as restoratives, al- 
though, perhaps, good dry nourishing food will have an 
equally good effect. 

Horn-aiL or Horn Distemper. ' In the spring, cattle which 
have been poorly kept through the winter arc subject to a 
wasting of the pith of the horn, which is usually called the 
horn distemper. It is sometimes in one horn only and some- 
times in both. The indications of the disease are coldness 
of the horn, dullness of the eyes, sluggishness, want of appe- 
tite, and a disposition to lie down. When the brain is af- 
fected, the animal will toss its head, groan, and exhibit indi- 
cations of great pain. 

To cure the disease Dr. Deane directed to bore a hole with 
a nail gimblet into the lower part of the horn, through which 
the foul matter may be discharged. By this boring, which 
should be nearly horizontal, or in the depending part of the 
horn, and two or three inches from the head of the animal, 
the cure is sometimes completed. When it proves other- 
wise, a mixture of rum and honey with myrrh and aloes 
should be thrown into the horn with a syringe, and be seve- 
ral times repeated if the disease continue. 

Lovett Peters, Esq. of Westborough, Massachusetts, in a 
communication published in the New England Farmer, vol. 
vH. page 194, give? the following recipe for curing this 
disease, which he observes was furnished him by an aged 
friend, and successfully applied to ' a cow taken with horn- 
ail to that degree that she had nearly stopped eating, and 
from giving a large quantity of milk had become nearly dry.' 

' Take of salt one half-pin+, of soot one half-pint, of black 
pepper one table-spoonful ; make all fine, and give one or 
two spoonfuls at a time, night and morning. It is easily 
done by drawing the tongue out of the mouth with the hand, 
and putting the spoon as far down as it will reach, then let 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 73 

go the tongue, and keep up the nose, and it will all go down.' 
Mr. Peters says, ' I followed the directions, and in two days 
my cow was better ; and in a week was perfectly well. The 
same may not cure in all cases of horn-ail, as my informant 
said it would, but it is worth the trial. 

It should seem, however, as Mr. Peters suggested, that the 
above-mentioned remedy is not infallible. Mr. Thomas Ha- 
zen, in a communication published in the Neu^ England Far- 
mer, vol. vii. p. 234, states that he tried it without success ; 
but, by the advice of a large owner of cattle, he freely ap- 
plied spirits of turpentine to an ox in high flesh, but afflicted 
with the horn-ail, on the top of the head aloiig the roots of 
the horns, for a number of days. The ox soon began to feed 
well, and in a few weeks was sold for market. It is a severe 
remedy, throwing the animal into extreme agony.' 

Dr. Cooper, in the last Philadelphia edition of WillicK's 
Domestic Encyclopedia, directs. For the hollow horn, saw off 
the caseased part ; dress with turpentine ; keep the animal 
warm, and do not starve him. It is a disease owing to want 
of food and exposure to cold. 

Remedy for Cattle when choked by Roots or other sub- 
stances. Mr. Joseph Wingate; of Maine, in a corrimunica- 
tion for the New England Farmer, vol. iii. page 57. says, 
that every farmer should have a rope, which is to be put 
dv>wn into any animal's throat when choked with aiy hard 
substance, such as a turnip, potato, or an ear of corn. ' I 
have used this rope, and never found the least difficulty in 
giving immediate relief. Many cattle have died for the want 
of it, and many have been killeel outright by using other 
means. Take an old tarred rope, six feet Ion,;'. Let it 
be served, [strongly wound round with tvvine] and, when 
finished, be one inch in diameter. When put dovv'n the 
throat it should be pushed gently down four feet and a half 
into a cow or an ox. In cold weather it is stiff enough, 
but in warm weather it should be wet with cold water before 
it is vsed.' 

Mr. E. Williams, of W^estford, New York, in New Eng- 
land Farmer, vol. iii. p. 81, directs to an easier method to re- 
lieve th, complaint : 'It is merely to pour down the throat 
one quart of very strong soap suds. I have seen it tried in 
numerous instances, and invariably with the best effect. It 
affords instantaneous relief.' 
7 



74 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

BARNS. It is a common practice, and with many a 
general rule, to build a farm-house adjoining, and perhaps 
in contact with the sheds, barns, and other outhouses. 
When the buildings are thus all situated in one clump, if 
one takes fire, the whole will, probably, be consumed. Be- 
sides, it is disagreeable and unwholesome to live too near 
manure heaps, and as it were in the midst of your herds of 
cattle and swine. The barn should, therefore, be placed at 
a convenient distance from the dwelling-house and other 
buildings, but as near as may be without danger of fire, or 
annoyance from the effluvia of manure heaps. Too low a 
spot will be miry in spring and fall. Too high an eminence 
will be inconvenient for drawing in loads, and on account of 
saving and making manure. If other circumstances permit, 
it may be best to place a barn in such a manner as to de- 
fend the dwelling-house from the force of the coldest winds. 

The size of the barn should be proportionate to the pro- 
duce of the farm ; for in this country, where building is not 
expensive, all the hay and grain should be placed under 
cover. It is a bad practice to leave hay in stacks, in the 
meadows where it is cut, to be there foddered out to the cat- 
tle in the course of the winter. By this mode of manage- 
ment the manure is almost lost. The ground under and 
near the stack receives some benefit from the droppings of 
the cattle, the litter, hay-seeds, &c. of the stack. But this 
benefit is trifling, as the sun, air, and rains soon exhale and 
wash away the manure, which being left on the surface of 
the soil, is soon given to the winds and the waters. 

The farmers of the older parts of Pennsylvania, generally, 
build very large barns, and to prevent the hay or grain from 
heating in a large mow, four poles or pieces of timber are 
set up in the middle, so as to form within them a square 
space of about two feet. The poles are braced by cross- 
pieces at certain distances. Through the aperture thus, 
made the extra moisture in the hay or grain has a chance to 
escape, so as to prevent its being mow-burnt. Their barns 
are usually built of stone, and in the walls a large number 
of small holes are made for the admission of air. Their cat- 
tle are chiefly all housed, and their dung is under cover, when 
thrown out of the stables, to prevent its being injured by 
the rains. The roofs of the barns are usually painted, to 
preserve them against the weather. 

' The floor of the barn should be kept tight, so that the 
grain cannot fall through in threshing ; and for this purpose 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 75 

it should have a layer of thin boards under it. It is most 
advisable also to have a place set apart in the barn for the 
purpose of storing away the grain after it is threshed. The 
bins for the grain should be made of hard plank, to prevent 
the rats and mice from eating through them, and should have 
lids, which can be fastened dow^n with padlocks.' — Farmer's 
Assistant. 

The following is a description of a large barn built in the 
town of Hancock, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, by the 
family of Shakers located in that place. It was originally 
published in the Middletown (Conn.,) Sentinel, and repub- 
lished in the New England Farmer, vol. v. p. 215. 

The barn is built on ground inclining southwardly, in a 
perfect circle, and is ninety feet in diameter across it from 
side to side. The walls are of stone, twenty-two feet in 
height, of a suitable thickness, and laid in lime, and w^ell 
pointed on each side. Round the barn, on the inner side, 
are stables, forming a circle, the manger wdthin, and suitable 
places over it to throw or feed down the hay ; the stable and 
manger occupy about twelve feet, and are eight feet high ; 
the stables open to and from several different barn-yards, in 
order to make as many and such divisions of stock as they 
})ave thought proper. The covering of the stables forms the 
barn floor, which also extends round the barn. There is but 
one lar^e door-way for entrance w^ith teams and loads ; this 
is from the northern side, from an offset or causeway, eight 
feet above the base, and of course fourteen feet beloAv the 
eaves. The cart or wagon that enters with a load makes the 
■whole circuit of the floor, and after unloading comes out at 
the same door ; thus eight or ten teams with their loads can 
occupy the floor at one time in unloading, and not hinder each 
other. Within this circle of the stables and barn floor is an 
area or hay, as it is usually called, which is filled with hay, 
&c., which must be over sixty feet in diameter. This is 
pitched in and on from any side or place most convenient, or 
where wanted. 

The roof comes to a point at the centre, and sheds off the 
rain all round, something similar to an umbrella. It is sup- 
ported from the inner circle of the barn floor. The roof 
boards are laid up and down, which, by a transverse sawing 
of the log, \vere all brought to a point, and then shingled 
round in the usual mode. 

A waiter for the New England Farmer, whose communi- 
cation was published, vol. iii. p. 81, describes ' a barn of 



76 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

ordinary size, and the main part of it built in the usual shape, 
but a good deal neater and tighter. The bays were upon 
each siie of the floor, and the bottoms of them were sunk 
eight feet below it. This gave room for a large quantity of 
hay below the floor. The large doors were towards the 
south, to admit the sun, when necessary, with a small door 
in one of the large ones to enter at when the weather was 
windy, and made it dangerous to open the large doors. 
Barns ought always to have a small door to use in the win- 
ter, when you must often be in and out. There were twelve 
squares of glass arranged over the door, to admit the light 
when the large doors were shut ; besides a small window in 
each of the gable ends, very near the ridge, for the same pur- 
pose. Under the floor was a convenient cellar, in which 
Avere kept potatoes, and all kinds of vegetables for green fod- 
der in the winter. The cellar was a very warm one, and 
well lighted with two windows. This cellar struck me as 
being the most useful apartment in the whole establishment, 
and I wonder that all farmers do not have one. There you 
may keep as many turnips, cabbages, potatoes, &;c., as you 
please, and they are always handy to fodder out in the sta- 
ble to your cattle ; and the cattle need scarcely go out of 
the stable in a month. 

' The yard was well watered by an aqueduct, and a trough 
on the south side of the barn was kept always full. Upon 
the north or back side of the barn were the stables : they 
were built in one building, and joined to the main part, about 
twenty-five feet in width, thirty feet long, and twelv^e or four- 
teen feet high. A door led from the barn into it, besides 
another from without upon the east side, where the cattle 
were admitted from the yard. A floor was laid overhead, 
at the distance of seven feet from the lower one. The stalls 
v/ere arranged on each side of the building, so that the cattle 
stood with their heads towards the outside of the building, 
leaving a space in the middle to pass. 

' In foddering, the hay was pitched from the bay in the 
barn through a window, over the stables, and then put down 
into racks; very little hay could be wasted in this way, and 
the boys could be trusted with the foddering. The manure 
made in the stable was put down through the floor into 
another cellar, large enough to admit of a cart and team to 
take it away.' 

A report of the committee on farms, in the county of 
Essex, for the year 1824, states, that colonel Moses Newhall, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 77 

in West Newbury, ' has lately built a barn, which for con- 
venience and durability of construction is worthy of much 
praise. It is calculated better for the farmer's use than any 
one we have seen. It is not too much to say that during 
the haying season, the most busy season with the farmer, its 
superior conveniences will save at least the labor of one man 
on the farm. It is about eighty feet in length, thirty-four 
feet in width, and twenty feet post. It has two floors, one 
eight feet above the other ; on the upper of which the hay is 
carried in. Mr. Newhall has favored the committee with a 
plan of it for the benefit of the society.' 

The Shakers of Harvard, Massachusetts, have built a barn, 
which is probably larger than any other structure of the kind 
in the United States. The dimensions, we are told, are one 
hundred and fifty feet in length, and forty-five in luidtk. It 
is four stories in height, and the calculation is to drive in on 
the upper floors, from the hill side, and pitch the hay down, 
thus rendering much hard labor easy. 

Barn- Yards. The following ' Remarks on the Construc- 
tion and Management of Cattle Yards,'' are from the pen of 
judge Buel, of Albany. 

Vegetables, like animals, cannot thrive or subsist without 
food; and upon the quantity and quality of this depends the 
health and vigor of the vegetable, as well as of the animal. 
Both subsist upon animal and vegetable matter, both may be 
surfeited with excess, both may be injured by food not 
adapted to their habits, their appetites, or their digestive 
powers. A hog will receive no injury, but great benefit, from 
free access to a heap of corn or wheat, where a horse or cow 
will be apt to destroy themselves by excess. The goat 
will thrive upon the boughs and bark of trees, where the hog 
would starve. The powerful, robust maize will repay, in 
the increase of its grain, for a heavy dressing of strong dung ; 
for which the more delicate wheat will requite you with 
very little but straw. The potato feeds ravenously, and 
grows luxuriantly, upon the coarsest litter ; while many of 
the more tender exotics will thrive only on food upon which 
fermentation has exhausted its powers. But here the analo- 
gy stops : for while the food of the one is consumed in a 
sound, healthy, and generally solid state, the food of the 
other, before it becomes aliment, must undergo the process 
of putrefaction or decomposition, and be reduced to a liquid 
or aeriform state. 

I have gone into the analogy between animals and vege- 

7# 



78 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

tables thus far, to impress upon the minds of our farmers the 
importance of saving, and of applying the food of their vege- 
tables with the same care and economy that they do the 
food of their animals. How scrupulously careful is the good 
husbandman of the produce of his farm destined to nourish 
and fatten his animals ; and yet how often careless of the 
food which can alone nourish and mature his plants: while 
his fields are gleaned, and his grain, hay, and roots carefully 
housed, and economically dispensed to his animals, the food 
of his vegetables is suffered to waste on every part of his 
farm. Stercoraries we have none. The urine of the stock, 
which constitutes a moiety of the manure of animals, is all 
lost. The slovenly and wasteful practice of feeding at stacks 
in the fields, where the sole of the grass is broken, the fodder 
wasted, and the dung of little effect, is still pursued. And, 
finally, the little manure which does accumulate in the yards, 
is suffered to lie till it has lost full half of its fertilizing pro- 
perties, or rotted the sills of the barn ; when it is injudiciously 
applied, or the barn removed to get clear of the nuisance. 
Again: none but a slothful farmer will permit the flocks of 
his neighbors to rob his own of their food ; yet he often sees, 
but witli feeble efforts to prevent it, his plants smothered by 
pestiferous weeds, and plundered of the food which is essen- 
tial to their health and vigor. A weed consumes as imichfood 
as a useful ■plant. This, to be sure, is the dark side of the 
picture; yet the original may be found in every town, and 
in almost every neighborhood. 

Is it surprising that under such management our arable 
grounds should grow poor, and refuse to labor its accustom- 
ed reward ? Can it be considered strange, that those who 
thus neglect to feed their plants should feel the evil of light 
purses, as well as of light crops? Constant draining or 
evaporation, without returning any thing, would in time 
exhaust the ocean of its waters. A constant cropping of the 
soil, without returning any thing to it, will in like manner 
exhaust it of its vegetable food, and gradually induce sterility. 
Neither sand, clay, lime, or magnesia, which are the elements 
of all soils, nor any combination of part or all of them, is 
alone capable of producing healthy plants. It is the animal 
and vegetable matter accumulated upon its bosom, or which 
art deposits there, with the auxiliary aid of these materials 
diffused in the atmosphere, that enables the earth to teem 
with vegetable life, and yield its tribute to man and beast. 

I will now suggest a cheap and practicable mode of pro- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 79 

viding food for vegetables, commensurate to the means of 
every farmer of ordinary entcrprize ; and that my suggestions 
may not be deemed theoretical, I will add, that 1 ' practise 
what I preach.' 

The cattle yard should be located on the south side of, 
and adjoining the barn. Sheds, substantial stone walls, or 
close board fences, should be erected at least on the east and 
west sides, to shelter the cattle from cold winds and storms; 
the size proportioned to the stock to be kept in it. Exca- 
vate the centre in a concave form, placing the earth removed 
upon the edges or lowest sides, leaving the borders ten or 
twelve feet broad, of a horizontal level, to feed the stock up- 
on, and from two to five feet higher than the centre. This 
may be donfe with a plough and scraper, or shovel and hand- 
barrow, after the ground is broken up with the plough. I 
used the former, and was employed a day and a half, with 
two hands and a team, in fitting two to my mind. When 
the soil is not sufficiently compact to hold w.iter, the bottom 
should be bedded with six or eight inches of clay, well beat 
down, and covered with gravel or sand. This last labor is 
seldom required, except where the ground is very porous. 
My yards are constructed on a small loam, resting on a clay 
subsoil. Here should be annually deposited, as they can be 
conveniently collected, the weeds, coarse grass, and brakes 
of the farm ; and also the pumpkin vines and potato tops. 
The quantity of these upon a farm is very great, and are 
collected and brought to the yard with little trouble by the 
teams returning from the fields. And here also should be 
fed out, or strewed as litter, the hay, stalks, and husks of In- 
dian corn, pea and bean haulm, and the straw of grain not 
wanted in the stables. To still farther augment the mass, 
leached ashes and swamp earth may be added to advantage. 
These materials will absorb the liquid of the yard, and, be- 
coming incorporated with the excrementitious matter, double 
or treble the ordinary quantity of manure. During the con- 
tinuance of frost the excavation gives no inconvenience ; and 
when the weather is soft, the borders afford ample room for 
the cattle. In this way, the urine is saved, and the waste 
inciaent to rains, &c. prevented. The cattle should be kept 
constantly yarded in winter, except when let out to water, 
and the yard frequently replenished with dry litter. Upon 
this plan, from ten to twelve loads of unfermented manure 
may be obtained every spring for each animal; and if the 
stable manure is spread over the yard, the quality of the 



80 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

dung will be improved, and the quantity proportionably in- 
creased. Any excess of liquid that may remain after the 
dung is removed in the spring, can be profitably applied to 
grass, grain, or garden crops. It is used extensively in 
Flanders, and in other parts of Europe. 

Having explained my method of procuring and preserving 
the food of vegetables, I will proceed to state my practice in 
feeding or applying it. It is given, every spring, to such 
hoed crops as will do well upon coarse food, (my vegetable 
hogs and goats.) These are corn, potatoes, ruta baga, beans, 
and cabbages. These consume the coarser particles of the 
manure, which would have been lost during the summer in 
the yard; while the plough, harrow, and hoe eradicate the 
weeds which spring from the seeds it scatters. The finer 
parts of the food are preserved in the soil, to nourish the 
small grains which follow. The dung is spread upon the 
land as evenly as possible, and immediately turn3d under 
with the plough. It is thereby better distributed for the 
next crop, and becomes intimately mixed and incorporated 
with the soil by subsequent tillage. Thus, upon the data 
which I feel warranted in assuming, a farmer who keeps 
twenty horses and neat cattle will obtain from his yards and 
stables, every spring, two hundred loads of manure, besides 
what is made in summer, and the product of his hogsty. 
With this he may manure annually ten or twelve acres of 
corn, potatoes, &;c., and manure it well. And if a proper 
rotation of crops is adopted, he will be able to keep in good 
heart, and progressively to improve, sixty acres of tillage 
land, so that each field shall be manured once every four or 
five years, on the return of the corn and potato crop. 



DAIRY. The celebrated Arthur Young has the follow- 
ing remarks on this subject. 

' Unless the farmer has a very diligent and industrious 
wife, who sees minutely to her dairy, or a most honest, dili- 
gent, and careful housekeeper to do it for him, he will assur- 
edly lose money by his dairy ; trusted to common servants, 
it will not pay charges. The dairymaid must be up every 
morning at four o'clock, or she will be backward in her 
business. At five the cows must be milked, and there must 
be miJkers enough to finish by six. The same rule must be 
observed in the evening. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. SI 

' In making butter the dairymaids are particularly atten- 
tive to one circumstan«^e, that there must be a certain pro- 
portion of sour in the cream, either natural or artificial, or 
they cannot insure a good churning of butter ; some keep a 
little of the old cream for that purpose ; others use a little 
runnet ; and some a little lemon juice.' 

In order to determine which cow's milk is best for cream, 
it has been recommended to let the milk of each be put by 
itself, and churn each separately. 

The properties requisite in a dairy-house are, that it be 
cool in summer and moderately warm in winter, so as to 
preserve nearly the same temperature throughout the year, 
which, according to Loudon, should be about forty-five de- 
grees. A northern exposure, as much under the shade of 
trees as possible, is to be preferred. A well ^constructed but- 
ter dairy, says Loudon, should consist of three apartments ; 
a milk house, a churning house, with proper boiler, as well 
as other conveniences for scalding and washing the imple- 
ments, and a room to keep them in, and for drying and airing 
them, when the weather will not permit of its being done 
without doors. The cheese dairy should likewise consist of 
three apartments : a milk house, a scalding and pressing 
house, and a salting house. To these should be added a 
cheese room, or loft, which may with great propriety be made 
above the dairy. This is, however, generally separate from 
the dairy. But a milk dairy requires only a good milk 
house, and a room for scalding, cleaning, and airing the 
utensils. 

A daily for the private use of any farmer or family need 
not be large, and may very economically be formed in a 
thick-walled dry cellar, so situated as to have windows on 
two sides ; the north and east in preference for ventilation : 
and in order that these windows may the better exclude cold 
in winter and heat in summer, they should be fitted with 
double sashes, and on the outside of the outer sash should 
be a fixed frame of close wire netting or haircloth, to exclude 
flies and other insects."^ 

On Making and Preserving Biitter. The dairy-house 
should be kept neat, should not front the south, south-east, 
or south-west. An apartment in a sweet and well ventilated 
cellar will answer a good purpose to keep milk and cream in. 

* For several different plans of dairy houses, see Loudon's Enc. of 
Agr. Par. 6300, &c. 



82 THE COMPLETE FARMER ' 

Cheeses should not be set to dry in the same room where 
your miJk is set, for they communicate an acid matter to the 
surrounding air, which will have a tendency to make the 
milk sour. The milk room and cheese room should therefore 
be separate apartments. It will be well to place your milk 
room, if possible, over a spring or brook, near the dwelling- 
house ; and you may have a stone floor, and channels in the 
floor to pass the water round near the inside of the walls. 
Into these channels the pans may be set, filled with milk, 
and surrounded by water. If water could be introduced 
into the milk room so as to fall from some height on the 
pavement, it would likewise prove advantageous, as the 
waterfall and the evaporation it causes will contribute to 
preserve the air continually pure, fresh, and cool. As the 
milk itself when brought in warm will naturally tend to raise 
the temperature of the milk room too high, it is recommend- 
ed to have an ice-house attached to the dairy, especially 
where the advantage of a current of water cannot be obtain- 
ed. An ice-house would prove still more profitable if the 
dairy be situated near large towns, where the ice could be 
sold in summer. According to Dr. Deane, the temperature 
of the milk room should be from fifty to fifty-five degrees of 
Fahrenheit's thermometer ; and the Complete Grazier says, 
* where the temperature of the milk room has become affected 
by the carrying of newly drawn milk into it, it may be easily 
reduced to the proper temperature by suspending a small 
quantity of ice at a considerable height from the floor ; and 
if, during winter, the cold should become too great, a barrel 
of hot water closely stopped, or a few hot bricks placed on 
the floor or table of the milk room, will readily counteract its 
effects. But on no account whatever should a chafing-dish 
with burning coals be used, as it will certainly impart a bad 
taste to the milk.' 

The proper receptacles for milk are tin or earthen pans, 
not glazed nor lined with lead, or wooden trays. Lead, 
copper, or brass utensils, as well as earthen-ware vessels 
glazed with lead, ought on no pretext whatever to be used ; 
for the acid which is contained in milk combines with these 
metals, and forms a poisonous compound with them. Sir 
John Sinclair recommends vessels made of cast iron, softened 
by annealing them in charcoal, so that they will not break 
by an ordinary fall, turned smooth in the inside, and laid 
over with a coat of tin, to prevent the iron from coming in 
contact with the milk. These milk dishes are stated to be 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



%3 



kept more easily clean than wooden vessels ; and their su- 
perior power of conducting heat cools the milk so rapidly 
that the Scottish farmers' wives, who have given them a fair 
trial, affirm that they throw up one-third more cream from a^i 
equal quantity of milk."^ Cast iron vessels, without Leing 
tinned, would give no poisonous quality to the milk, but they 
might render the produce of the dairy unpalatable. 

' All dairy utensils ought to be most carefully scoured, 
first with hot water, and afterwards rinsed with cold, and 
kept in an airy place, in order that every possible degree of 
acidity may be removed. Should one or two scourings be 
insufficient, they must be repeatedly cleansed until they be- 
come entirely sweet, as the slightest taint or acidity may 
cause material loss.'t Slate, according to some accounts, 
makes very good milk coolers, and perhaps freestone might 
answer as well. 

The quality and quantity of cows' milk greatly depends 
on the nature of their food. Potatoes, carrots, and parsnips 
are recommended as causing cows to give excellent milk ; 
and mangel-wurtzel is highly spoken of for the same purpose. 
Cabbages, if sound, answer an excellent purpose, but the de- 
cayed leaves giv^e a bad taste to the milk. It is thought 
best to milk cows three times a day if fully fed, and great 
caution should be exercised by the persons employed to 
draw the milk from them completely, not only to increase the 
quantity of produce, but to preserve its quality. Any por- 
tion which may be left in the udder seems gradually to be 
absorbed into the system, and no more is formed than enough 
to supply the loss of what is taken away ; and by the con- 
tinuance of the same mode a yet farther diminution takes 
place, until at length scarcely any is produced. This last 
mode of milking is practised when it is intended to render a 
cow dry. 

' After the milk is drawn from the cow, it should be care- 
fully strained through a linen cloth or a hair sieve, (Dr. An- 
derson prefers a sieve made of silver wires, on account of its 
superior wholesomeness,) into the cream dishes, which should 
never exceed three inches in depth, though they may be 
made so wide as to contain any quantity required, and which 
ought to be perfectly clean, sweet, and cool. If any ill flavor 
is apprehended from the cows having eaten tu:aips, &c., the 
addition of one-eighth part of boiling water to the milk be- 

* Agricultural Report of Scotland. f Complete Grazier. 



84 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

fore it is poured into the dishes will effectually remove it.* 
When filled, the dishes ought to be set upon shelves or 
dressers, there to continue till the cream is removed. This 
should be steadily done by means of a skimming dish, if 
possible, without spilling any upon the floor, because it will 
speedily taint the air of the room ; and the cream poured 
into a vessel, till enough be obtained for churning. 

The Farmer's Assistant judiciously observes, ' If new milk 
be kept as warm as when it comes from the cow, no cream 
will rise on it ; but when sufficiently cooled, the cream sepa- 
rates from the rest and rises to the top. In order then to 
effect this to the best advantage, the new milk should be 
made as cool as possible, and the cooler it is thus made the 
more suddenly and effectually the cream will rise. To set 
milkpans made of tin in beds of salt would no doubt be use- 
ful, where the cellar is too warm ; and to set all milk vessels 
on a floor which is constantly covered with cold spring water 
is also an excellent plan.' 

The following remarks relative to the best mode of making 
butter are chiefly derived from Dr. Anderson's valuable Essay 
on that subject. 1. The milk first drawn from a cow is 
always thinner, and inferior in quality to that afterwards 
obtained ; and this richness increases gradually to the very 
last drop that can be drawn from the udder 2. The portion 
of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and 
greater in quantity than that which rises in the second equal 
space of time, and so of the rest, the cream decreasing and 
growing worse as long as it rises at all. 3. Thick milk pro- 
duces a smaller proportion of cream than that which is thin- 
ner, though the cream of the former is of a richer quality. 
If thick milk therefore be diluted with water, it will afford 
more cream than it would have yielded in its pure state, 
though its quality will at the same time be inferior. 4. Milk 
carried about in pails, or other vessels, agitated and partly 

* Mr. Young has recommended the dairy-man to boil two ounces of 
nitre in one quart of water, and to bottle the mixture ; of which, whea 
cold, a large tea-cupful is to be added to ten or twelve quarts of ni'lk as 
soon as it comes from the cow. The quantity of salpetre is to be increased 
as the turnips become stronger. The feeding of cows with the roots 
alone will, as the earl of Egremont found, prevent the milk from having 
a bad taste. Another method of removing any ill flavor arising from the 
cows having eaten turnips, consists in warming the cream, and after- 
wards pouring it into a vessel of cold water; from which the cream is to 
be skimmed as it rises to the surface, and thus the unpleasant taste will 
be left behind in the water. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 8$ 

cooled before it is put into the milkpans, never throws up 
such good and plentiful cream as if it had been put into pro- 
per vcfcsels immediately after it came from the cow. 

From these fundamental facts, the doctor deduces, in sub- 
stance, the following rules: 

1. The cows should be milked as near the dairy as possi- 
ble, to prevent the necessity of carrying and cooling the 
milk before it be put into the dishes ; and as cows are much 
hurt by far driving, it must be a great advantage in a dairy 
farm to have the principal grass fields as near the dairy or 
homestead as possible. In this point of view, also, the prac- 
tice of feedinor cows in the house, rather than turniiuT tliem 
out to pasture in the field, must be obviously beneficial.^ 

2. The practice of putting the milk of all the cows of a 
large dairy into one vessel, as it is milked, there to remain 
till the whole milking be finished, before any part is put into 
the milkpans, seems to be highly injudicious, not only on 
accoi nt of the loss sustained by the agitation and cooling, 
but also, the more especially, because it prevents the owner 
of the dairy from distinguishing the good from the bad cow's 
milk, so as to enlighten his judgment respecting the profit 
that he may derive from each. Without this precaution, he 
may have the whole of his dairy produce greatly debased by 
the milk of one bad cow for years together, without being 
able to discover it. A better practice, therefore, would be 
to have the milk drawn from each cow separately put into 
the creaming pans as soon as milked, without being ever 
mixed with any other ; and if these pans were all made of 
such a size as to be able to contain the whole of one cow's 
milk, each in a separate pan, the careful daii would thus be 
able to remark, without any trouble, the quantity of milk 

* Mr. Lawrence, in his 'Treatise on Cattle,' observes, that 'it is stated 
by theoretical writers, that to feed cows in the home stall increases their 
quantity of milk; a fact which various experiments compel me to d'L.^pr^^ve. 
With me it has ever had the effect of adduig to the substance of the ani- 
mal, and of diminishing the quantity of her milk; probably from defect 
of the exercise she was wont to take in collecting her food, and the se- 
lection of herbage she was enabled to make.' This writer, however, is of 
opinion, that ' the aggregate quantity of milk in a dairy may be enlarged 
by keeping pastures free from the tread of the cows, since a greater 
number may be kept, perhaps by one-third, on the same extent of ground ; 
at the same lime the animals may be secured from the harassing and 
debilitating effects of the sun and flies. 

t A provincial word, denoting ty^ person who has the chief concern in 
a dairy. 

8 



86 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

afforded by each cow every day, as well as the peculiar 
qualities of the cow's milk. And if the same cow's milk 
were always to be placed on the same part of the shelf, hav- 
ing the cow's name written beneath, there never could be 
the smallest difficulty in ascertaining which of the cows it 
would be for the owner's interest to dispose of, and which he 
ought to keep and breed from. 

3. If it be intended to make butter of a very fine quality^ 
it will be advisable, not only to reject entirely the milk of all 
those cows which yield cream of a bad quality, but also, in 
every case, to keep the milk that is first drawn from the cow 
at each milking entirely separate from that which is got last ; 
as it is obvious, if this be not done, the quality of the butter 
must be greatly debased, without adding much to its quantity. 
It is also obvious, that the quality of the butter will be im- 
proved in proportion to the smallness of the quantity of the 
last drawn milk which is used, as it increases in richness to 
the very last drop that can be drawn from the udder at that 
time ; so that those who wish to be singularly nice will do 
well to keep for their best butter a very small proportion of 
the last drawn milk. 

Dr. Anderson proceeds to state in substance, that in the 
Highlands of Scotland the common practice is to let the calf 
suck till the dairymaid judges that it has had enough ; it is 
then separated, the legs of the mother having been previously 
shackled by a very simple contrivance, to oblige her to stand 
still, and the dairymaid milks off what is left by the calf. In 
this way, he observes, the Highland butter has been gi'eatly 
celebrated as the ' richest marrowy butter M'^hich can any- 
where be met with.' The milk which is first drawn, and 
consequently of inferior quality, may be converted into an 
inferior kind of butter, sold sweet, or made into cheeses, 
which, by being made of sweet milk, if made with care and 
skill, may be of fine quality. 

Churning ought to be regularly continued till the butter 
comes, or is formed. If the motion in summer be too quick, 
the butter will, in consequence, ferment, and become ill- 
tasted ; and, in winter, it will go back. Churning, it is said, 
may be made easier by putting the bottom of the pump churn 
about one foot deep into a vessel of cold water, and continu- 
ing it there till the butter is made. The addition of one or 
two table-spoonfals of distilled vinegar, after churning awhile, 
will, it is said, produce butter much sooner in many instances 
than it can be formed without such addition. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 87 

Some writers advise to wash the butter, after it is formed, 
thorouglily in several waters, till all the milk is removed. 
Dr. Anderson, however, advises to force the milk out of the 
cavities of the butter by means of a flat, wooden ladle, fur- 
nished with a short handle, at the same time agitating the 
butter as little as possible, lest it become tough and gluey. 
'The beatiig up of butter,' he observes, ' by the hand, is an 
indelicate practice, particularly if it be constitutionally warm; 
and as it is hurtful to the quality of the butter to pour cold 
water on it during this operation, the butter, if too soft to re- 
ceive the impression of the mould, may be put into small 
vessels, and there be permitted to float in a trough of cold 
water beneath the table, without wetting the butter, which will 
soon become sufficiently firm. Or, when butter is flrst made, 
after as much of the milk has been got out as possible, it may 
be thinly spread on a marble slab, and the remaining mois- 
ture be absorbed by patting it with clean dry towels.' 

It is said in Bordley's Husbandry, that ' dashing in water, 
and then, without pause, clearing the butter from every par- 
ticle of the water, is widely different from washing butter by 
kneading and letting it remain at all in the water. Very 
good butter for flavor, color, and consistence, is made by one 
V Ho washes it twice, but never lets it remain in the water a 
liioment. Another butter-maker says, mix the salt in the 
butter in the evening, and let it rest till morning, then work 
out the liquor, but never let it be once touched with water. 

Dr. Anderson remarks, that a considerable degree of 
strength as well as dexterity is required in the working of 
butter. The thing wanted is to force out the milk entirely, 
with as little tawing [working] of the butter as possible, for 
if the milk be not entirely taken away, the butter will spoil 
in a short time ; and if it be much worked the butter will 
become tough and gluey, which greatly debases its quality. 

Before you put butter into the vessels which are to contain 
it, great care must be taken that they be well seasoned by 
frequent washing and exposure to the air for two or three 
weeks. As it is difficult to season new firkins, it will always 
be preferable to employ ihose which have been used. The 
most speedy method of seasoning firkins is by the use of un- 
slacked lime, or a large quantity of salt and water, w^ell boil- 
ed, with which they should be repeatedly scrubbed, and after- 
wards thrown into cold water, to remain there three or four 
days, til] wanted. They should then be scrubbed as before, 
and well rinsed with cold water ; and before the butter is put 



88 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

in, every part of the inside of the firkin must be well rubbed 
with salt. 

Butter may be salted by working into it one or two ounces 
of salt, ?.fter the buttermilk has been forced out. The salt 
should be thoroughly incorporated, and be of the best and 
purest quality. Dr. Anderson, however, recommends the 
following preparation, which he has experienced to be much 
superior, as it not only prevents the butter from becoming in 
any degree rancid, but also improves its appearance, and im- 
parts a sweeter and richer taste than could be given by com- 
mon salt only. For every pound of butter take half an 
ounce of best common salt, one quarter of an ounce of loaf 
sugar, and one quarter of an ounce of saltpetre ; beat and 
blend the whole completely together. Butter thus cured 
should stand three or four weeks before it is used, that the 
salts may be well mixed. The best butter is made in sum- 
mer, but by adding a certain portion (which experience 
alone can determine) of the juice expressed from the pulp of 
carrots to the cream previously to churning ; winter-made 
butter will thus acquire the appearance and flavor of butter 
that has been churned during the prime part of the summer 
season. 

A writer for the Journal of Humanity gives the following 
rules for making good butter. ' If you have four or five 
cows, it is best to churn every day ; and by no mcnns less 
frequently than every other day. If you cannot churn every 
day, throw into the cream, when gathered, a handful of nice 
salt. In very warm weather, when milk sours soon, put 
two heaping table-spoonfuls of salt into ev"!ry pail of milk 
before straining. The quantity as well as the quality of the 
butter is greatly improved by this method. If you have ice, 
put a small piece in every pan of milk, and also into the 
cream when you churn. If you have no ice, put the cream 
into a pail, and hang it in the vv^ell twelve hours before churn- 
ing. In the warm season, cream should be skimmed as soon 
as it is in the least sour, and in the coldest weather, milk 
should not stand more than thirty-six or forty-eight hours. 
The utmost care should be taken to keep every article used 
in making butter perfectly sweet by frequent and thorough 
scalding.' 

A writer for the New England Farmer, vol. vi. p. 370, ob- 
served as follows : 

' It does not, in my opinion, improve the butter to have 
the milk sour before the cream is gathered ; but at this sea- 



I 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 89 

son of the year [June] it can hardly be prevented. It 
should, however, never be suffered to stand till the milk cur- 
dles. When the cream is gathered it should be set in an 
open vessel, where the air can have free access to its sur- 
face ; and during the time that the cream is gathering for a 
churning of butter, it should have a stick or spoon kept in 
the vessel where the cream is, by which the cream should 
be stirred at least half a dozen times a day, enough to mix 
it up well, and bring a new portion of it to the air ; and it 
should stand before the window of the milk room, or some 
other, the most airy position afforded by the room. When 
you have gathered a mess for this season of the year, fill 
your churn over night with cold water, and empty it in the 
morning. Put in your cream and churn it with a regular, 
steady, and not too rapid motion. It will generally come in 
from ten to twenty minutes, and when fetched it needs no 
coloring matter. 

' I know that women say flies will get into the cream if 
left uncovered ; let them get in, and pick them out, rather 
than cover up the vessel containing the cream. ^ 

' The windows to milk rooms, in many houses, are not suf- 
ficiently large, with from four to eight small panes of glass. 
This affords too stinted a portion of air. If your glass is 
small, you want a twenty-four lighted window to the milk 
room, with blinds to exclude the sun. If two such windows, 
so situated as to afford a draught of air, the better. But 
stint your milk room of air, and keep the cream pot covered 
tight to exclude flies, and your butter will be white and bit- 
ter , besides being a long while coming.' 

Making Butter in Winter. A friend has furnished us with 
the following observations on this subject : 

' In February, 1825, I spent a few days with Dr. Jones, 
who lives near Hyco bridge, in Halifax county, Virginia. 
Mrs. Jones prepares her cream for churning by heating the 
milk after it has stood twelve or twenty-four hours. 

' She places it over coals the evening before churning, un- 
til the milk as it stands with the cream on is heated ready 
to boiling, when she sets it by till morning. The cream is 
then skimmed off, and churned by stirring in an earthern 
vessel. The butter is delicately white and clear in its com- 
plexion, firm, and fine flavored. 

* Perhaps a covering of gauze, millinet, or other light and porous sub- 
stance, or a lid perforated with small holes, might admit air and exclude 
the flies. — Editor. 

8# 



90 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

' This process would, no doubt, prove more successful in 
any part of New England, since the climate of Virginia is 
generally less favorable to the dairy than that of the eastern 
states.' 

From the same pen we are favored with the following : 

Garlic in Butter. ' When milk has the flavor of garlic, 
or wild onion, add a quart of boiling water to each gallon, 
and set it ^away in vessels, having the bottom covered the 
thickness of an inch only with milk. The cream that rises 
will be sweet and free from any disagreeable flavor.' 

L. Peters, Esq. of Westborough, Massachusetts, says, rela- 
tive to making winter butter, ' My wife's method is to set 
the vessels in which the cream is collected near the fire a 
while before it is put into the churn, and frequently stir it a 
little, and turn the vessels, that it may be warmed equally, 
till it is as warm as cream in the summer, as near as she can 
judge ; and before putting it into the churn, that is scalded 
with scalding water. When the churning commences, it is 
done moderately, and if there is any frothy appearance, then 
warm water is put in, the churn put near the fire, and 
occasionally turned, till the temperature is altered, and the 
churning is finished, which is generally in a short time. If 
a dash churn is used, set it into a tub of hot water, and fre- 
quently move the dash a little, to mix the warm and cold 
cream, till it is of a suitable warmth, which an observing per- 
son will soon ascertain by practice.' — N. E. Farmer, vol. vi. 
p. 370. 

A valuable paper on the making of butter in cold weather, 
by the Rev. W. Allen, states the results of several trials, by 
which it appears that butter may be obtained in the coldest 
weather within from ten to twenty minutes, if the cream at 
the commencement of the churning i^ brought to the tem- 
perature of about seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. 

E. H. Derby, Esq. of Salem, Massachusetts, recommends 
the making of butter by the aid of frost, as follows : 

' The milk when taken from the cows is immediately 
strained into earthen pans, and set in the coldest part of the 
house ; as soon as the frost begins to operate, a separation 
takes place, the cream rises in a thick paste to the top, and 
leaves the milk, without a particle of cream, frozen in the 
pan. The cream is not so hard but that it can be easily 
scraped off" with a spoon, to the solid ice ; it is then set aside 
until a sufficient quantity is collected for churning, Avhen it 
is warmed just so much as to thaw the cream sufficiently to 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. M 

put it into the churn. I have never known it to require 
more than five minutes to convert such cream into butter, 
after the churning had commenced.' 



CHEESE — Method of making. ' The milk is universally- 
set for cheese as soon as it comes from the cow. 

' The management of the curd depends on the kind of 
cheese : thin cheese requires the least labor and attention. 

' Breaking the curd is done with the hand and dish. The 
finer the curd is broken the better, particularly in thick 
cheeses. The best color of this kind of cheese is that of 
bees-wax, which is produced by annotta, rubbed inio the 
milk after* it is warmed. The dairy-woman is to judge of 
the quality by the color of the milk, as it differs much in 
strength. The runne* is prepared by taking some whey 
and salting till it will bear an egg ; it is then sufl^ered to 
stand over night, and in the morning it is skimmed and rack- 
ed off clear ; to this is added an equal quantity of water 
brine, strong as the whey, and into this mixture some sweet- 
briar, thyme, or some other sweet herbs ; also a little black 
pepper and saltpetre ; the herbs are kept in the brine three 
or four days, after which it is decanted clear from them. 
Into six quarts of this liquor four large calves' bags, or, more 
properly called, calves' stomachs, are put. No part of the 
preparation is heated, and frequently the calves' baofs are 
only steeped in cold salt and water. Turning the milk dif- 
fers in different dairies, no two dairy-women conducting ex- 
actly alike. 

' Setting the milk too hot inclines the cheese to heave, 
and cooling it with cold water produces a similar effect. 
The degree of heat varies according to the weather. The 
curd when formed is broken with what is called a treple 
cheese knife. The use of this is to keep the fat in the 
cheese. It is drawn the depth of the curd two or three 
times across the tub, to give the whey an opportunity of run- 
ning off clear ; after a few minutes the knife is more freely 
used, and the curd is cut into small pieces like checkers, and 
is broken fine in the whey with the hand and a wooden dish. 
The curd being allowed about half an hour to settle, the 
whey is laded off with the dish, after it is pretty well sepa- 
rated from the curd. 

' It is an almost invariable practice to scald the curd. The 
mass is first broken very fine, and then the scalding whey is 



92 THE COM.PLETE FARMER 

added to it and stirred a few minutes ; some make use of hot 
water in preference to whey, and it is in both cases heated 
according to the nature of the curd ; if it is soft, the whey 
or water is used nearly boiling; but if hard, it is only used a 
little hotter than the hand. After the curd is thoroughly 
mixed with the hot stuff, it is suffered to stand a few minutes 
to settle, and is then separated as at the first operation. 
After the scalding liquor is separated, a vat, or what is often 
called a cheese hoop, is laid across the cheese ladder over 
the tub, and the curd is crumbled into it with the hands, and 
pressed into the vat, to squeeze out the whey. The vat be- 
ing filled as full and as firmly as the hand alone can fill it, 
and r(.unded up in the middle, a cheese cloth is spread over 
it, and the curd is turned out of the hoop into the cloth ; the 
vat is then -washed, and the inverted mass of curds, with the 
cloth under it, is returned into the vat and put into the press ; 
after standing two or three hours in the press, the vat is 
taken out, and the cloth is taken off, washed, and put round 
the cheese, and it is replaced in the vat and in the press. 
In about seven or eight hours it is taken out of the press and 
salted, the cheese is placed on a board, and a handful of salt 
is rubbed all over it, and the edges are pared off if necessary ; 
another handful of salt is strewed on the upper side, and as 
much left as will stick to it ; afterwards it is turned into the 
bare vat without a cloth, and an equal quantity of salt is 
added to it, and the cheese is returned into the press ; here 
it continues one night, and the next morning it is turned in 
the vat, and continues till the succeeding morning, and the 
curd is taken out and placed on the dairy shelf: here they 
are turned every day or every other day, as the weather may 
be. If it is hot and dry, the windows and door are kept 
shut ; but if wet or moist, the door and windows are kept 
open night and day.' 

Cleaiiing the Cheese. ' The cheeses having remained about 
ten days after leaving the press, are to be washed and 
scraped in the following manner : a large tub of cold sweet 
whey is placed on the floor, the cheeses are immerged in it, 
where they continue one hour, or longer, if necessary, to 
soften the rind. They are then taken out and scraped Avith 
a common case-knife, with great care, so as not to injure the 
tender rind, till every part of the cheese is smooth ; they 
are after the last operation rinsed in the whey and wiped 
clean with a coarse cloth, and placed in an airy situation to 
dry, after which they are placed in the cheese room. The 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 93 

floor of the cheese room is g-eiierally prepared by rubbing it 
with bean or potato tops, or any succulent herb, till it ap- 
pears of a black wet color. On this floor the cheeses are 
placed, and turned twice a week ; their edges are wiped hard 
with a c'oth once a week, and the floor is cleansed and rub- 
bed with fresh herbs once a fortnight. They mubt not lie 
too long or they will stick to the floor. Tliis preparation of 
the floor gives the cheese a blue coat, which is considered of 
great consequence. 

Stilton Cheese^ hoiu made. ' The Stilton cheese, which 
may be called the Parmeskn of England, is not confined to 
Stilton and its vicinity, for many farmers in Huntingdon- 
shire, and «lso in Rutland and Northamptonshire, make a 
similar sort, sell them for the same price, and give them the 
name of the Stilton cheeses. 

' Take the night's cream and put it into the morning's new 
milk w^ith the runnet ; when the curd is separated, let it not 
be broken, as is done with other cheese, but take it out, dis- 
turbing it as little as possible, and sufler it to dry gradually 
in a sieve ; and as the whey separates, compress it gradually 
till it has acquired a firm consistence ; then place it in a 
wooden hoop, and sufler it to dry very gradually on a board, 
taking care at tiie same time to turn it daily with close bind- 
ers round, and wdiich must be tightened as the cheese ac- 
quires more solidity. 

Cheese, Skippers m. ' Wrap the cheese in thin brown pa- 
per, so thin that moisture may strike through soon ; dig a 
hole in good sweet earth about two feet deep, in which the 
cheese must be buried about thirty-six hours, and the skip- 
pers will be found all on the outside of the cheese ; brush 
them ofl^ immediately, and you will find your cheese sound 
and ffood. 

• • T-« 

To prevent Cheese having a rancid nauseous flavor. ' Put 
about one table-spoonful of salt to each gallon of milk, when 
taken from the cows in the evening, for the cheese to be 
made the next day ; put the salt at the bottom of the vessel 
that is to receive the milk ; it will increase the curd, and pre- 
vent the milk from growing sour or putrid, the hottest nights 
in the summer.' — Massachusetts Agricultural Repository. 

[The following is from the pen of a friend, to whom we are indebted 
for several valnable articles, written expressly for this work.] 

' To make Cheese. A person whose dairy enjoys a high 
reputation gives the following directions for making cheese : 



94 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

" Take a gallon and a half of water and throw into it a 
pint and a half of common salt. Boil and skim it, and add 
three or four ounces of rose leaves. After it is sufficiently 
steeped, let it cool, and put in one ounce of saltpetre and 
four runnets. A great spoonful of this preparation 's enough 
to turn fifteen gallons of milk. When the curd is made, dip 
it out carefully, ard put it into a cloth that sits in a vessel 
with its bottom perforated with holes. Let a person on each 
side of the cloth take up the corners, and raise the curd care- 
fully, and turn it from one side to the other in the cloth, in 
order to the better draining off the whey ; then lay it as be- 
fore, in a vessel perforated with holes, and thus turn it once 
in fifteen or twenty minutes, and in the intervals place a fol- 
lower upon it, with a stone above ; cutting the curd through 
each time. When the whey is out, season it with salt to 
suit your palate, while cutting it up in small pieces with a 
suitable knife ; then put it up for pressing. Let it stand un- 
der thirty or forty pounds' weight twenty-four hours, and 
then turn it, and let it stand twenty-four hours more under 
the same. A severe pressure, which is sometimes given, 
spoils a rich cheese entirely.' 

" Set your cheese in closets made for the purpose, which 
flies cannot enter. 

" The outside may be rubbed with a mixture of butter and 
Spanish brown, which answers very well, but other mixtures 
may answer equally well. 

" A small quantity of otter, say the size of a kernel of rye, 
sewed up in a cloth, may be put in each curd. 

" Never wash out your cheese cloth with soap, but boil it 
out in whey." ' 



HEMP. The following essay on the culture of Hemp was 
originally published in the Western Agriculturist. It is a 
complete treatise on the best manner of raising and prepar- 
ing an article, which always commands cash sufficient to re- 
ward liberally the cultivator who proceeds correctly in ob- 
taining this valuable product. The author of the essay is 
not less favorably known as a statesman than as a practical 
and scientific agriculturist, and the signature of Henry Clay 
will give it that weight and currency with American farmers 
which is due to its intrinsic excellence. 

Sir, Having promised you some account of the method of 
cultivating and preparing hemp in this state, I now proceed 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 95 

to redeem it. I shall endeavor to describe the general prac- 
tice of the cultivators, without noticing all the deviations of 
particular individuals. 

The district of country in which the plant is most exten- 
sively cultivated, is the Elkhorn region around and near Lex- 
ington, which derives its name from a stream discharging it- 
self into the Kentucky river, whose branches are supposed 
to resemble the horns of the elk. It is also produced in con- 
siderable quantities in the counties of Jefferson, Shelby, 
Mercer, Madison, Clarke, Bourbon, and Mason. The soil of 
that region is a rich, deep, vegetable loam, free from sand 
and with but little grit. It lies on a bed of clay, interspersed 
with small fras^ments of iron ore, and this clay in its turn re- 
poses on a mass of limestone lying many feet in depth in 
horizontal strata. The surface of the country is generally 
undulating. The rich land (and there is but little that is 
not rich) in this whole region is well adapted to the growth 
of hemp, where it has not been too much exhausted by inju- 
rious tillage. The lands which produce it best are those 
which are fresh, or which have lain some time in grass of 
clover. Manuring is not yet much practised. Clover is 
used in lieu of it. Lands which remain in clover four or 
fi\e years without being too constantly and closely grazed, 
recover their virgin fertility. The character of the soil in 
the other counties above mentioned does not vary materially 
from that in the Elkhorn district. 

The preparation of the ground for sowing the seed is by 
the plough and horses, until the clods are sufficiently pul- 
verized or dissolved, and the surface of the field is rendered 
even and smooth. It should be as carefully prepared as if it 
were for flax. This most important pomt, too often neglected, 
cannot be attended to too much. Scarcely any other crop 
better rewards diligence and careful husbandry. Fall or 
winter ploughing is practised with advantage ; it is indis- 
pensable in old meadows, or old pasture grounds, intended 
for producing hemp. 

Plants for seed are ordinarily reared in a place distinct 
from that in which they are cultivated for the lint. In this 
respect, the usage is different from that which is understood 
to prevail in Europe. The seeds which are intended to re- 
produce seeds for the crop of the next year, are sowed in 
drills about four feet apart. When they are grown suffi- 
ciently to distinguish between the male and female stalks, 
the former are pulled and thrown away, and the latter are 



96 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

thinned, leaving the stalks separated seven or eight inches 
from each other. This operation is usually performed in 
the blooming season, when the sexual character of the plants 
is easily di;:oernible ; the male alone blossoming, and, when 
agitated, throwing off farina, a yellow dust or flour, which 
falls and colors the ground, or any object that comes in con- 
tact with it. A few of the n.ale plants had better be left, 
scattered through the drill, until the farina is completely 
discharged, for an obvious reason. Between the drilis a 
plough is run sufficiently often to keep the ground free from 
weeds and grass ; and between the stalks in each drill the 
hoe is employed for the same object. The seed plants are 
generally cut after the first smart frost, between the 25th 
September and the middle of October, and carried to a barn 
or stack-yard, where the seeds are easily detached by the 
common flail. They should be gathered after a slight, but 
before a severe frost ; and, as they fall out very easily^ it is 
advisable to haul the plants on a sled, and, if convenient, 
w^hen they are wet. If transported on a cart or wagon, a 
sheet should be spread to catch the seed as they shatter out. 
After the seeds are separated, the stalks which bore them 
being too large, coarse, and harsh, to produce lint, are usu- 
ally thrown away; they may be profitably employed in milk- 
ing charcoal for the use of powder-mills. In Europe, where 
the male and female plants are promiscuously grown together 
in the same field, both for seeds and for lint, the male stalks 
are first gathered, and the female suffered to remain growing 
until the seeds are ripe, when they are also gathered ; the 
seeds secured and lint obtamed, after the rotting, from both 
descriptions. 

After the seeds are threshed out, it is advisable to spread 
them on a floor, to cure properly and prevent their rotting, 
before they are finally put away for use the next spring. 
Seeds are not generally used unless they were secured the 
fall previous to their being sown, as it is believed they will 
not vegetate if older ; but it has been ascertained that when 
they are properly cured and kept dry, they will come up 
after the first year. It is important to prevent them from 
heating, which destroys the vegetating property, and for 
that purpose they should be thinly spread on a sheltered 
floor. 

The seeds, whether to reproduce seeds only, or the lint, 
are sowed about the same time. Opinions vary as to the 
best peri:^d. It depends a good deal upon the season. The 



♦I 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 97 

plant is very tender when it first shoots up, and is afTected 
by frost. Some have sowed as early as the first of April ; 
but it is generally agreed, that all the month of May, and 
about the 10th of it especially, i? the most favorable time. 
An experienced and successful hemp grower, in the neigh- 
borhood of Lexington, being asked the best time to sow 
hemp, answered, immediately before a rain. And undoubt- 
edly it is very fortunate to have a moderate rain directly 
after sowing."^ 

When the object is to make a crop of hemp, the seeds 
are sown broad-cast. The usual quantity is a bushel and a 
half to the acre ; but here again the farmers differ, some 
using two bushels or even two and a half Much depends 
on the strength and fertility of the soil, and the care with 
which it has been prepared, as well as the season. To these 
causes maybe ascribed the diversity of opinion and practice. 
The ground can only sustain and nourisli a certain quantity 
of plants ; and if that limit be passed, the surplus will be 
smothered in the growth. When the seeds are sovvn, they 
are ploughed or harrowed in ; ploughing is best in old 
ground, as it avoids the injurious effect of a beating rain, 
and the consequent baking of the earth. It would be also 
beneficial subsequently to roll the ground with a heavy 
roller. 

After the seeds are sown, the labors of the cultivator are 
suspended, until the plants are ripe, and in a state to be 
gathered ; every thing in the intermediate time being left 
to the operations of nature. If the season be favorable un- 
til the plants are sufficiently high to shade the ground, (which 
they will do in a few weeks, at six or eight inches' height,) 
there is strong probability of a good crop. When they at- 
tain that height, but few articles sustain the effect of bad 
seasons better than hemp. 

It is generally ripe and ready to be gathered about the 
middle of August, varying according to the time of sowing. 
Some sow at different periods, in order that the crop may 
not all ripen at the same time, and that a press of labor in 
rearing it may be thus avoided. The muturity of the plant 
is determined by the evaporation' of the farina, already no- 

* [Would it not be well to soak the seed in water a few hours previous 
to sowina^ ? We have found this to answer nearly as good a purpose as 
rain after sowing, with all seeds with which we have tried it. The vege- 
tation of maiigel-wurtzel is wonderfully accelerated by it. — Ed. Am. 
Farmer.] 

9 



98 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

ticed, and the leaves of the plant exhibiting a yellowish hue : 
it is then generally supposed to be ripe, but it is safest to 
wait a few days longer. Very little attentive observation 
will enable any one to judge when it is fully ripe. In that 
respect it is a very accommodating crop, for if gathered a 
little too soon, the lint is not materially injured, and it will 
wait the leisure of the farmer some ten days or a fortnight 
after it is entirely ripe. 

Two modes of gathering the plants are practised, one by 
pulling them up by the roots, an easy operation with an 
able-bodied man, and the other by cutting them about two 
inches (the nearer the better) above the surface of the ground. 
Each mode has its partisans, and I have pursued both. From 
a quarter to a third of an acre is the common task of an 
average laborer, whether the one or the other mode is prac- 
tised. The objections to pulling are, that the plants with 
their roots remaining connected with them, are not after- 
wards so easily handled in the several operations which they 
must undergo ; that all parts of the plant do not rot equally 
and alike, when exposed to the dew and rain ; and, finally, 
that before you put them to the brake, when the root should 
be separated from the stalk, the root drags off with it some 
of the lint. The objection to cutting is, that you lose two 
or three inches of the best part of the plant nearest the root. 
Pulling, being the most ancient method, is most generally 
practised. I prefer, upon the whole, cutting ; and I believe 
the number who prefer it is yearly increasing. When pull- 
ed, it is done with the hand, which is better for the protec- 
tion of an old leather glove. The laborer catches twenty or 
thirty plants together, with both hands, and by a sudden jerk 
draws them without much difficulty. The operation of cut- 
ting is performed with a knife, often made out of an old 
scythe, resembling a sickle, though not so long, but broader. 
This knife is applied much in the same way as the sickle, ex- 
cept that the laborer stoops more. 

Whether pulled or cut, the plants are carefully laid on the 
ground, the evener the better, to cure ; which they do in 
two or three days, in dry weather. A light rain falling on 
them whilst lying down is thought by some to be beneficial, 
inasmuch as the leaves, of which they should be deprived, 
may be easier shaken off or detached. When cured, the 
plants are set up in the field in which they were produced, in 
shocks of convenient size, the roots or butt ends resting on 
the ground, and the tops united above by a band made of the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 99 

plants themselves. Previous to putting them up in shocks, 
most cultivators tie the plants in small hand bundles of such 
a size as that each can be conveniently held in one hand. 
Before the shocks are formed, the leaves of the plants should 
be rapidly knocked off with a rough paddle or hooked stick. 
Some suffer the plants to remain in these shocks until the 
plants are spread down to be rotted. Others, again, collect 
the shocks together as soon as they can command leisure, 
(and it is clearly best,) and form them into stacks. A few 
farmers permit these stacks to remain over a whole year, be- 
fore the plants are exposed to be rotted. I have frequently 
done it with advantage, and have at this time two crops in 
stalks. By remaining that period in stalks, the plants go 
through a sweat, or some other process, that improves very 
much the appearance, and, I believe, the quality of the lint, 
and this improvement fully compensates the loss of time in 
bringing it to market. The lint has a soft texture and a 
lively hue, resembling water rotted hemp ; and I once sold a 
box of it in the Baltimore market at the price of Kussia 
hemp. In every other respect, the plants are treated as if 
they were not kept over a year. 

The method of dew rotting is that which is generally prac- 
t -^ed in Kentucky. The lint so spread is not so good for 
many purposes, and especially for rigging and ships, as when 
the plants have been rotted by immersion in water, or, as it 
is generally termed, water rotted. The greater value, and 
consequently higher price, of the article prepared m the lat- 
ter way, has induced more and more of our farmers every 
year to adopt it ; and if that prejudice were subdued, which 
every American production unfortunately encounters when 
it is first introduced and comes in contact with a rival Euro- 
pean commodity, I think it probable that in a few years we 
should be able to dispense altogether with foreign hemp. 
The obstacles which prevent the general practice of water 
rotting are, the want of water at the best season for the 
operation, which is the month of September ; a repugnance 
to the change of an old habit ; and a persuasion, which has 
some foundation, that handling the plants after their submer- 
sion in water during that month is injurious to health. The 
first and last of these obstacles would be removed by water 
rotting early in the winter, or in the spring. The only dif- 
ference in the operation, performed at those seasons and in 
the month of September, would be, that the plants would 



100 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

have to remain longer in soak before they were sufficiently 
rotted. 

Ttie plants are usually spread down to be dew rotted from 
the middle of October to the middle of December. A farmer 
who has a large crop on hand puts them down at different 
times for his convenience in handling^ and dressing them. 
Autumnal rotting is more apt to give the lint a dark and 
unsightly color than winter rotting. The best ground to 
expose the plants upon is meadow or grass land, but they 
are not unfrequently spread over the same field on which 
they grow. The length of time they ought to remain ex- 
posed depends upon the degree of moisture and the tempera- 
ture of the weather that prevail. In a very wet and warm 
spell five or six weeks may be long enough. Whether they 
have been sufficiently rotted or not is determined by experi- 
ment. A handful is taken and broken by the hand or ap- 
plied to the brake, when it can be easily ascertained, by the 
facility with which the lint can be detached from the stalk, 
if it be properly rotted. If the plants remain on the ground 
too long, the fibres lose some of their strength, though a (ew 
days longer than necessary, in cold weather, will not do any 
injury. If they are taken up too soon, that is, before the 
lint can be easily separated from the woody part of the stalk, 
it is harsh, and the process of breaking is difficult and trou- 
blesome. Snow rotting, that is, when the plants, being spread 
out, remain long enough to rot, (which however req'iires a 
greater length of time,) bleaches the lint, improves the quali- 
ty, and makes it nearly as valuable as if it had been water 
rotted. 

After the operation of rotting is performed, the plants are 
again collected together, put in shocks or stacks, or, which is 
still better, put under a shed or some covering. When it is 
designed to break and dress them immediately, they are fre- 
quently set up against some neighboring fence. The best 
period for breaking and dressing is in the months of Februa- 
ry and March, and the best sort of weather frosty nights and 
clear thawing days. The brake cannot be used advantage- 
ously in wet or moist weather. It is almost invariably used 
in this state out of doors and without any cover ; and to 
assist its operation, the laborer often makes a large fire near 
it, which serves the double purpose of drying the plants and 
warming himself. It could not be used in damp weather in 
a house without a kiln or some other means of drying the 
stalks. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 101 

The brake in general use is the same hand brake which 
was originally introduced and has been always employed 
here, resembling, though longer than, the common flax brake. 
It is so well known as to render a particular description of 
it, perhaps, unnecessary. It is a rough contrivance, set upon 
four legs, about two and a half feet high. The brake con- 
sists of two jaws with slits on each, the lower jaw fixed and 
immovable, and the upper one movable, so that it may be 
lifted up by means of a handle inserted into a head or block 
at the front end of it. The lower jaw has three slats or 
teeth, made of tough white oak, and the upper two, arranged 
approaching to about two inches in front, and in such manner 
that the slats of the upper jaw play between those of the 
lower. These slats are about six or seven feet in length, six 
inches in depth, and about two inches in thickness in their 
lower edges ; they are placed edgewise, rounded a little on 
their upper edges, which are sharper than those below. The 
laborer takes his stand by the side of the brake, and grasping 
in his left hand as many of the stalks as he can conveniently 
hold, with his right hand he seizes the handle in the head 
of the upper jaw, which he lifts, and throwing the handful 
of stalks between the jaws, repeatedly strikes them by lift- 
ing and throwing down the upper jaw. These successive 
strokes break the woody or reedy part of the stalks into 
small pieces or shoes, which fall off during the process. He 
assists their disengagement by striking the handful against 
a stake, or with a small wooden paddle, until the lint or bark 
is entirely clean, and completely separated from the woody 
particles. 

After the above operation is performed, the hemp may be 
scutched, to soften it, and to strengthen the threads. That 
process, however, is not thought to be profitable, and is not 
therefore generally performed by the grower, but is left to 
the manufacturer, as well as that of beating and hackling it. 
Scutching is done by the laborer taking in his left hand a 
handful of the lint, and grasping it firmly, then laying the 
middle of it upon a semicircular notch of a perpendicular 
board of the scutching frame, and striking with the edge of 
the scutch that part of the lint which hangs down on the 
board. After giving it repeated strokes, he shakes the hand- 
ful of lint, replaces it on a notch, and continues to strike and 
turn all parts of it, until it is sufficiently cleansed, and the 
fibres appear to be even and straight. 

The usual daily task of an able-bodied hand at the brake 
9# 



102 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

is eighty pounds' weight ; but there is a great difference not 
only in the state of the weather and the condition of the 
stalks, produced by the greater or less degree in which they 
have been rotted, but in the dexterity with which the brake 
is employed. Some hands have been known to break from 
one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per day. The 
laborer ties up in one common bundle the work of one day, 
and in this state it is taken to market and sold. From what 
has been mentioned, it may be inferred, as the fact is, that 
the hemp of some growers is in a much better condition than 
that of others. When it has been carelessly handled or not 
sufficiently cleansed, a deduction is made from the price by 
the purchaser. It is chiefly bought in our villages, and 
manufactured into cotton bagging, bales, and other kinds of 
untarred cordage. The price is not uniform. The extremes 
have been as low as three and as high as eight dollars for 
the long hundred, the customary mode of selling it. The 
most general price during a term of many years has been 
from four to five dollars. At five dollars it compensates well 
the labor of the grower, and is considered more profitable 
than any thing else the farmer has cultivated. 

The most heavy labor in the culture of hemp is pulling or 
cutting it, when ripe, and breaking it when rotted. This 
labor can easily be performed by men. Various attempts 
have been made to improve the process of breaking, which 
is the severest work in the preparation of hemp, A newly- 
invented machine was erected for that purpose on my farm 
six or eight years ago, to dress hemp by dispensing with rot- 
ting altogether, similar in structure to one which was exhi- 
bited about the same time at Columbus, during the sitting of 
the Ohio legislature. It was worked by horse power, and 
detached the lint tolerably well, producing a very fine look- 
ing article, equalling in appearance Russia hemp. A ton of 
it was sold to the navy department, which was manufactured 
into rigging for the ship of the line the North Carolina, 
prior to her making a voyage of three years in the Mediter- 
ranean. Upon her return, the cordage was examined and 
analyzed ; and although its exterior looked very well, it was 
found, on opening it, to be decayed and affected somewhat 
like the dry rot in Avood. I considered the experiment de- 
cisive ; and it is now believed that the process of water or 
dew rotting is absolutely necessary, either before or after the 
hemp has been to the brake. There is a sappy or glutinous 
property of which it should be divested, and tl\at is the only 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 103 

process that has been hitherto generally and successfully em- 
ployed to divest it. 

An ingenious and enterprising gentleman in the neigbor- 
hood of Lexington has been, ever since the erection of the 
above-mentioned machine, trying various experiments, by 
altering and improving it, to produce one more perfect, which 
might be beneficially employed on rotted hemp, to diminish 
the labors of the brake. He mentioned the other day that 
all of them had failed ; that he had returned to the old hanJ 
brake, and that he was convinced that it answered the pur- 
pose better than any substitute with which he was acquaint- 
ed. I observe Mr. H. L. Barnum has recently advertised a 
machine which he has constructed for breaking and dressing 
hemp and flax, which can be procured at the establishment 
of Mr. Smith, in Cincinnati. I most cordially wish him suc- 
cess ; but the number of failures which I have witnessed, 
during a period of thirty years, in the attempt to supersede 
manual labor by the substitution of that of machines, induces 
me to fear that it will be long before this desideratum is 
attained. 

The quantity of net hemp produced to the acre is from six 
hundred to one thousand weight, varying according to the 
fertility and preparation of the soil and the state of the sea- 
son. It is said that the quantity which any field will produce 
may be anticipated by the average height of the plants 
throughout the field. Thus, if the plants will average eight 
feet in height, the acre will yield eight hundred weight of 
hemp ; each foot in height corresponding to a hundred weight 
of the lint. 

Hemp exhausts the soil slowly, if at all. An old and suc- 
cessful cultivator told me that he had taken thirteen or four- 
teen successive crops from the same field, and that the last 
was the best. That was probably however owing to a con- 
currence of favorable circumstances. Nothing cleanses and 
prepares the earth better for other crops (especially for small 
grain or grasses) than hemp. It eradicates all weeds, and 
when it is taken off, leaves the field not only clean, but smooth 
and even. 

The rich lands of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, are, I have 
no doubt, generally well adapted to the cultivation of this 
valuable plant ; and those states enjoy some advantages for 
the cultivation of it which this docs not possess. Their 
streams do not dry up as much as ours, and they conse- 
quently employ better than we can the agency of water in 



104 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

tlie preparation of it. Their projected canals, when com- 
pleted, will admit of its being carried to the Atlantic capitals 
at less expense in the transportation than we can send it. 
On the other hand, the unfortunate state of slavery among 
us gives us, at present, probably a more certain command of 
labor than those states have. 



FLAX. The following observations on this subject are 
extracted from ' Essr.ys on Flax Husbandry!. By S. W. 
Pomeroy, Esq., First Vice-President of the Massachusetts 
Society for Promoting Agriculture.' 

Change of Seed. Notwithstanding it is an opinion well 
established among experienced flax growers in this country, 
that a change of seed is advantageous, it is apprehended that 
they are not aware of the extent of the benefit to be derived 
by selecting seed from a soil or climate essentially different ; 
and it may be owing to a want of attention in this particular, 
that the flax crops are so uncertain, and the quality inferior, 
however perfect in other lespects the system may be con- 
ducted. Mr. Young observes that ' foreign flax-seed was 
universally used in Ireland, when it could be obtained ; other- 
wise they were careful io procure seed which grew upon 
soil of an opposite quality from that which was to be sown ; 
' that American seed was to be preferred, and produced finer 
flax than any other.' Baltic seed produced more, but of a 
coarser quality. It is well known that American seed al- 
ways bears the highest price in the Irish market. 

Mr. Pomeroy cites a number of examples to show the im- 
portance attached to the cultui-e of flax in Europe, ' and to 
justify the conclusion that in this country a continued, judi- 
cious change of seed will be indispensable to the successful 
prosecution of flax husbandry ; and a farther inference may 
be drawn, that experiments on various soils, with seed the 
growth of different climates, are requisite to direct the farmer 
to the quarter from whence his best seed may be obtained. 
Here opens a legitimate field for our numerous agricultural 
societies to labor in : on their exertions the farmer must de- 
pend in the outset ; but let it once be ascertained that Riga 
seed is best in one section, Dutch or German in others, and 
mercantile interest, if not patriotism, will distribute them. 

' Should it be objected to importing seed on account of the 
expense, we reply that large quantities of linseed oil are con- 



AND EURAL ECONOMIST. 105 

stantly imported, and the difference of price between our 
own seed and that imported will not much exceed what is 
now paid for good clean seed for sowing or export, and that 
which is sold for crushing ; but if it is £fty cents per bushel, 
or more, it can be no object, compared with the advantages 
that may be reasonably expected to result ; and the far»ner 
need not be told, that " in all his operations parsimony is 
never so ill judged as when it is exercised in the selection 
of his seeds." It is not pretended, however, but that, from 
the great variety of soil and climate in the United States, 
the object in view might be obtained ,vrithout importation ; 
yet it may be important to have a good stock to begin with, 
when trials could be instituted with its produce. At any 
rate, it cannot be expected that individuals will embark in 
such a course of experiments, either with foreign or domes- 
tic seed, unless encouraged by agricultural societies, or other 
public bodies.' 

In speaking of the soils most suitable for flax, j\Ir. Pome- 
roy observes, ' The soils which rank first in this country are 
the flat bottoms that are covered by the fall and spring floods, 
wh'ch subside early enough in the season to get in a crop ; 
those river flats on the second banks that have a depth of 
strong alluvial soil ; the reclaimed marshes and swamps, with 
a black unctuous soil, not too peaty, with as much clay in 
the composition as will permit its being rendered soon dry 
and mellow, and not retain water on or near the surface ; if 
it stands two feet below, so much the better, but it must be 
well guarded by ditches and dykes against sudden freshets. 
Such is the soil of the province of Zealand, where more flax 
is raised, and of better quality, than in any other part of 
Holland. The next in estimation are the strong black loams 
on clay or hard pan, that will retain moisture. Yellow 
loams, with a holding subsoil, may be rendered suitable for 
flax by proper cultivation ; and since the discovery that 
plaster of Paris is an excellent manure for it, a crop may be 
obtained with much more certainty on lighter land than for- 
merly. Perhaps the characteristic of best garden mould 
may be applied to a flax soil, viz., retaining sufficient mois- 
ture, and all that falls, without ever being saturated ; but on 
any soils the surface should be completely pulverized, and 
never be worked when wet. 

' No dung should be applied to the land when the flax is 
sown, but may be put on bountifully with the previous crop. 
The objection is, that dung forces the growth so rapidly, 



106 THE COBIPLETE FARBIKR 

that the plants draw weak, have a thin harl. and are the 
more Hable to lodge. Lime, marl, shells, leached ashes, &c. 
do not produce such effects. Top-dressings, soon after the 
plants appear, of plaster, ashes, soot, &c., are highly bene- 
ficial, as they not only encourage the growth, but are a pro- 
tectioix against worms, which sometimes attack young plants, 
and may be considered the only enemy they have except 
weeds. 

' Salt has been mentioned by the late Dr. Elliot, of Con- 
necticut, as an excellent manure to plough in with flax, at 
the rate of five bushels to the acre ;'^ probably more would 
be better. Plaster is now much used in Duchess county, the 
best cultivated district in New York, as a manure for flax, on 
which its good effects are as apparent as on corn. 

' The late chancellor Livingston viewed a piece of flax on 
the 20th of May, 1791, belonging to a poor tenant, very in- 
judiciously sown on a dry sandy declivity ; it looked so ex- 
tremely sickly that the tenant thought of ploughing it up ; 
the chancellor gave him three bushels of plaster, which was 
sown the next morning before the dew was off, and had the 
satisfaction of seeing his tenant gather more flax from his 
half acre in an uncommon dry season, than was produced 
from any acre in the neighborhood. 

' The best preparatory crops in this country at present ap- 
pear to be potatoes, corn, and roots ; they will most generally 
repay the extra manure, and, if well managed, check the pro- 
duction of weeds. 

' The following rotations may serve as an outline subject, 
to be varied, and hemp or other crops introduced, as circum- 
stances require, viz. : 

No. I. Loio. cold, or reclaimed Soils. _ 

1st year, Potatoes. 

2d do. Flax, with seeds. 

3d do. Herd's grass and red top, or tall meadow oat 
grass, to continue three years or more, and the course re- 
peated. 

No. II. Strong Uplands. 

1st year. Potatoes or corn. 

2d do. Corn or roots. • 

3d do. Flax, with seed. 

4th do. Clover. 



* See Elliot's Essays on Field Husbandry. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 107 

5th year, Orchard grass or herd's grass, to continue three 
years or more. 

No. III. Light Lands. 

1st year, Potatoes or corn. 

2d do. Corn or roots. 

3d do. Flax, with seed. 

4th do. Clover, to be mown once, the after growth to be 
turned in, and rye sown thick on the furrow, which may be 
soiled or fed in the spring by sheep or milch cows, and 
ploughed in for, 

5th year, Corn. 

6th do. Spring tvheat or barley. 

7th do. Clover ; and the course to be pursued as before ; 
when flax will occupy the land every seventh year. In all 
cases, except when hemp is substituted, the tillage crops 
should receive the dung. 

' If the land is ploughed into beds, or convex ridges, like 
turnpike roads, about a rod wide, especially if low and level, 
the crop will be much more secure from injury by heavy 
rains, and the grass crops will be better if it remains in that 
form. On any soils, fall ploughing in narrow ridges will 
facilitate its early working in spring, and should not be dis- 
pensed with.' 

Mr. Pomeroy gives the following directions relative to 
choice of seed. 

' That of the last year's growth should be obtained if pos- 
sible. The usual marks of good seed are, that it be plump, 
oily, and heavy, of a bright brown color, sinking readily in 
the water, and when thrown into the fire to crackle and blaze 
quick. A very simple method of trial is to sprinkle it thin 
between two pieces of wet paper, which plunge into a hot- 
bed or dunghill, and in less than twenty-four hours the pro- 
portion that will vegetate can be discerned, which should be 
ascertained, in order to regulate the quantity to be sown. 

' On this head ro particular directions can be given, as it 
depends on the various qualities of soil, goodness of seed, 
&c. The rule for sowing small strains is reversed ; flax re- 
quiring to be sown thickest on rich soil, as not more than 
one stalk is wanted from a plant. In England and Scotland 
never less than two, nor more than three bushels to the acre 
are sown. Two and a half is the most usual portion. In 
Flanders and Ireland seldom less than three bushels are sown, 
except when seed is an object. Thick sowing is to obtain 
fine flax. In this country it will be important at present to 



108 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

SOW at such a rate as will insure good crops of each ; and 
experience only can determine the exact point. It is proba- 
ble that six pecks is the least, and two bushels the extent 
that should be sown to obtain the most profitable results, till 
the demand for seed is considerably lessened.' 

Sou'ing. Mr. Pomeroy recommends sowing as early as 
it is possible to prepare the ground, says that it is important 
that the seeds should be equally distributed, and ' fortunately 
what has lonsf been a desideratum is now attained. A ma- 
chine for sowing small seeds broad-cast with perfect regu- 
larity has lately been invented, and performs to great satis- 
faction.^ 

Weedi?2g. ' Weeding is considered in Europe, and by 
good husbandmen in this country, as necessary to secure a 
good crop of flax, which is a very tender plant when young, 
and more easily checked in its progress by weeds than any 
other. It is not supposed to be injured by the clover and 
grass sown with it ; on the contrary, the Flemish farmers 
think them beneficial, by protecting the tender roots from 
drought, and keeping the weeds under. It should be care- 
fully wed when the plants are three or four inches high ; they 
are not then injured by the laborer going barefooted over 
them. 

Pidlmg. ' This should be performed as soon as the 
leaves begin to fall and the stalks show a bright yellow 
color, and when the bolls are turned a little brown. The 
seed will continue to ripen afterwards. When the flax is 
lodged it should be pulled immediately, in any stage of its 
growth, or it will be entirely lost. Great care is requisite in 
sorting the different lengths, and keeping them separate till 
after the flax is hackled, or much waste will ensue in that 
process. 

Saving Seed. ' As soon as the flax is dry enough to be 
put under cover, it should be rippled, as it is termed. A 
comb, resembling the head of a rake, but with teeth longer 
and nearer together, made of hickory or oak, is fastened up- 
on a block, and the flax, taken in parcels no larger than the 

* Bennett's machine for sowing broad-cast, a description and drawing 
of which are g'ven in the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural So- 
ciety, vol. iv, with ample testimony of its usefulness. It is pushed for- 
ward by a man, like a wheel-barrow, and will sow more than one acre in 
an hour, unimpeded by wind or light rain. They are for sale at J. R. 
Newell's agricultural warehouse, Nos. 51 and 52, North Market street, 
Boston, 



I 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 109 

hands can firmly grasp, is drawn through, and the bolls rip- 
pled off; attention to sorting at the same time should be con- 
tinued. The bolls are to be riddled and winnowed immedi- 
ately ; spread thin on a clean floor, or on sheets, in the sun, 
and when sufficiently dry, and beginning to open, threshed. 
By this method the foul seeds are completely separated with 
little trouble, and good clean seed is ready for an early 
market, often the best, without the use of expensive ma- 
chinery to make it so. Here the operations of the farmer 
ought to end ; the process of preparation being foreign to 
and unconnected with his other pursuits ; and which has been 
the greatest objection to extensive flax culture. Can there 
be a reason why the farmer is to prepare his flax more than 
the hides of his cattle, which he sends to the tanner? They 
are both chemical processes ; and to dissolve the glutinous 
or resinous substances by which the fibres are attached to 
the stem, without impairing their strength, is perhaps as 
critic il, and requires as much care and judgment, as to ex- 
tract the animal juices from the hides, and fill the pores 
with tannin. In short, the flax grower and flax preparer 
and dresser should be distinct professions. They are said 
to be so in Flanders and Holland, and were extensively so in 
Scotland, where the farmer sold his flax on the ground, or 
in sheaves at his barn or rick. 

' The preparation of flax by steeping is very general in the 
great flax gi'owing countries in Europe, but it is not quite 
finished in the water. It remains spread some days on the 
grass, which is necessary to render it soft, and give that sil- 
very appearance so desirable. The destructive process of 
dew rotting is most commonly practised in this country, and 
when water is resorted to it is at an improper season, and 
the process imperfect ; which is the cause of its being so 
harsh and brittle. Perhaps no part of the system requires 
such an allowance for difference of climate. In the humid 
atmosphere of Ireland it is not very material when it is 
spread ; but in this climate, when exposed to a July or 
August sun, every drop after a shower becomes a burning- 
glass, and literally scorches the fibres : besides, such a highly 
putrid fermentation as will then take place in the water, 
though it separates the harl more speedily, not only injures 
it, but communicates a stain, that renders the process of 
bleaching much more tedious and expensive. 

* The flax should not be put into the water till about the 
first of October, and remain from ten to fourteen days, ac- 
10 



110 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

cording to the temperature of the weather ; and should be 
taken out before the fibres will separate freely, spread on 
the grass, when the frost will very much assist the operation ; 
and the flax exhibits a gloss and softness that it is impossible 
to give it otherwise. The following method of preparing 
hemp will apply with great force to the point under discus- 
sion. During the late war, an experienced ship-master in 
Connecticut, and who was also a good farmer, raised a crop 
of hemp. As soon as it was dry enough to be stowed away, 
it was put under cover, and remained till October ; was then 
put into clear soft water, till the fibres would separate with 
some difficulty, when it was spread on the g^ass ; the frost 
completed the operation, and when dry it was immediately 
secured. There was no putrid fermentation to deteriorate 
the harl, nor was it mildewed by being exposed to the wea- 
ther, and when dressed exhibited that fine silver green hue 
by which the Russian hemp is distinguished ;^ and when 
worked up, was pronounced by the rope-makers to be equal 
to any hemp ever imported ! Here is a lesson for our west- 
ern brethren, that is worth more to them than mines of silver. 
Clear, soft, stagnant water is preferred in Europe. A canal 
forty feet long, six broad, and four deep, is said to be sufficient 
for the produce of an acre of flax, at one time. It should be 
formed on a clay or sonie holding soil, where the water from 
a spring or brook can be conducted in with convenience; 
the expense would not be great, and on most farms suitable 
sites may be had. May not boiling or steaming be found 
the most advantageous process of preparing flax ? The very 
superior sample of thread exhibited at Brighton, in 1818, for 
which Mrs. Crowninshield, of Danvers, received a premium, 
was spun from flax prepared by boiling. It appears by the 
" Transactions of the Swedish Academy," that a method was 
practised in Sweden of preparing flax to resemble cotton, by 
boiling it ten hours in salt water, spreading on the grass, 
and frequently watering, by which it becomes soft and 
bleached. Boiling or steaming will not appear very formida- 
ble or expensive when we examine the subject. A box twen- 
ty feet long, six feet wide, and four deep, well constructed 
of stout planks, a boiler, from which a large tube extends 
into and communicates with the water in the box, will boil 
the produce cf a quarter of an acre in a dajr ; that is, if we 



* The best Riga hemp supplied for the British navy is prepared by 
steeping ; during which it is shifted three times. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. Ill 

allow double the room to boil in that is required for steeping. 
A steam pipe, instead of the tube, and having the top ot" the 
box well secured, would permit the process of steaming to 
go on. It is probable that by eith?r method, spreading on 
the grass will be necessary to obtain soft flax. The yarns 
of which the sail cloth is made at Paterson are all steamed. 
The navy board expressly forbid their being boiled in alka- 
line lye, as is usual in most manufactures of linen. It is 
from this precaution that their canvas has the pliable, oily 
feeding, which so much recommends it. It should not be 
lost sight of, that by boiling or steaming, much time and ex- 
pense will be saved in bleaching. 

' In dressing,' says Mr. Pomeroy, ' our climate sfives a de- 
cided advantage over Ireland, Flanders, or the north of Eu- 
rope, where flax is dried on hurdles, over a peat fire, in ovens, 
or kilns, requiring great care in regulating the heat, to pre- 
vent injury. All this trouble and hazard is obviated by our 
dry atmosphere and keen north-west winds. Dr. Deane 
estimated the expense of dressing flax by hand at one-third 
of the product. I believe the present price does not vary 
much from his estimate. A respectable gentleman from 
Duchess county, New York, informed me that mills or ma- 
chi;!os, impelled by water, have been erected there, that break 
and completely dress the flax for a toll of one-tenth I It is 
said one or more of them are in operation in the western 
part of this state. These mills were invented in Scotland, 
and are now said to be brought to great perfection. They 
are erected in all directions in the principal flax districts in 
Ireland, and notwithstanding the low price and limited de- 
mand for labor, are resorted to by the poorer classes of peo- 
ple, the dressing by hand being mostly abandoned. There 
are machines in England that dress the flax immediately 
from the field, without any preparation whatever. An ac- 
count of them may be found in the fifth volume of the Mas- 
sachusetts Agricultural Journal. It appears by the report 
of a committee of the house of commons, that in 1S17 they 
were in successful operation. A man and three children im- 
pelled the machines, and dressed sixty pounds a day. Should 
they be susceptible of the application of water or steam pow- 
er in any degree proportionate, the advantage may be incal- 
culable ; but in the present inquiry, we place these machines, 
however desirable, entirely out of the question. 

Product. ' It is not uncommon in Great Britain and Ire- 
land to obtain eight hundred pounds of flax from an acre ! 



112 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



■1 



Six hundred pounds is estimated, in some districts, as an 
average ; but it should be observed that little, if any, seed 
is obtained. The average crop in New England, as far as 
our information extends, cannot be estimated at more than 
two hundred pounds, and six or eight bushels of seed. (We 
do not include the rich bottoms on the Connecticut, and 
some other rivers.) Dr. Deane was of opinion, that four 
hundred pounds might be calculated on with proper ma- 
nagement. 

' We think that four hundred pounds of good clean flax, 
and eight or ten bushels of seed, may fairly be assumed as 
a medium crop on favorable soils, where the culture becomes 
such an object as to make other farming operations subservi- 
ent to it, and due attention is paid to change of seed. 

' Those who grow flax to any extent are of opinion that 
the seed, at the price it has been for some years past, pays 
for all the labor bestowed on the crop to the time the flax 
is ready to be prepared or rotted. 



WHEAT. To raise good wheat is considered, both in 
America and Europe, as an object of prime consequence to 
the cultivator, and agricultural writers have of course been 
very voluminous on the subject. We shall select and con- 
dense some of their remarks, which appear to us of the great- 
est importance, and add what our own observation and ex- 
perience has suggested. 

Wheat is thought to be the most useful of the farinaceous 
plants ; and as the bounty of Providence has generally de- 
creed that those things which are most useful shall be most 
common, wheat accordingly will grow in almost any part of 
the globe. It thrives not only in temperate, but in very hot 
and in very cold regions : in Africa and Siberia, as well as in 
the United States and Great Britain. It requires a good 
loamy soil, not too light nor too heavy. The Memoirs of 
the New York Board of Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 28, state that 
' wheat grows best on land which contains just as much clay 
as can be combined with it without subjecting the wheat to 
be frozen out.' And the author of that article, Mr. Amos 
Eaton, observes, ' Since it is the clay which absorbs and 
retains most of the water injurious in wheat soils, I adopted 
a rule for the consideration of farmers, founded on that prin- 
ciple, and confirmed by all the observations I have been 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 113 

enabled to make. Rule. — Wash a little of the soil in a 
tumbler of water, and observe the time required for it to be- 
come clear. If the time required exceeds three hours, it 
may be considered as liable to be injured by frost.' W. Van 
Dusen, a farmer of Rensellaer county, New York, says ' that 
if wheat be sowed the last week in August, on clay soil, it 
will generally resist the effect of frost in the vv^inter, and of 
insects in the spring.' ' A clay soil,' according to the same 
work, ' having absorbed a large proportion of water, becomes 
cellular as the water freezes, or rises up in various protube- 
rances, so that the roots of the wheat plant become disengag- 
ed from their hold in the soil. It is very manifest that if 
wheat be sowed so early that each plant may have time to 
extend its roots into the soil, its chance for retaining its 
hold will be better.' We believe that not only clay, but lime, 
chalk, marl, or other calcareous substance, is necessary to 
bring wheat to perfection, and the grounds of our belief we 
shall exhibit hereafter. 

The Complete Farmer says, that ' the best time for sow- 
ing wheat is about the beginning of September. But if the 
earth be very dry, it had better be deferred till some show- 
ers have moistened the soil.' Mr. Mortimer says he has 
known wheat to be so musted and spoiled by laying long in 
the ground before rain came, that it never came up at all; 
to which he adds, ' that he has seen very good crops of 
wheat from seeds sown in July.' We should apprehend, 
however, that it would be necessary to feed wheat sown so 
early, in order to prevent its going to seed the first year, or 
getting too far advanced in its growth to resist the frosts of 
the succeeding winter. Sowing in dry ground is generally 
recommended for seeds ; but wheat, being liable to be smutty, 
is commonly prepared by steepino" in brine or lime, and in 
consequence of the steep vegetation commences ; and if the 
seed in this state is placed in earth which is and continues 
for any time dry, vegetation is checked by the drought, 
which kills or greatly injures the seed. 

Early sowing requires less seed than late, because the 
plants have more time, and are more apt to spread, and throw 
out a good number of stalks. More seed is required for poor 
than for rich lands, and rich land early sowed requires the 
least of any. Bordley's Husbandry says, ' The climate and 
soil of America may be believed to differ greatly from those 
of England respecting the growth of some particular plants. 
Wheat sown there two to three bushels on an acre yields 



114 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

great crops. Two bushels an acre sown in Maryland or 
Pennsylvania would yield straw without grain. In Mary- 
land three pecks are commonly sown. I never had better 
crops than from half a bushel of seed wheat to an acre, in a 
few instances. In these instances the ground was perfectly 
clean and fine, after many ploughings or horse-hoeings of 
maize, [Indian corn,] on which the wheat was sown in Sep- 
tember, whilst the maize was ripening. It was a clay loam 
highly pulverized. But because of the loss of plants at other 
times, I preferred to sow three pecks an acre.' ' Grain which 
is thin sown, says the Complete Farmer, is less apt to lodge. 
Every one must have observed that in places where foot- 
paths are made through wheat fields, by the side of the paths, 
where the corn is thin, and has been trodden down in winter 
and spring, the plants have stood erect, when most of the 
corn in the same field has been laid flat on the ground ; an 
advantage proceeding from the circumstance of the stalks 
having more room.' 

The Farmer's Assistant asserts, that ' the time for sowing 
wheat probably depends much on previous habit. Thus if 
it were sown a number of successive years by the middle of 
August, and then the time of sowing were changed at once to 
October, the crop would probably be much lighter on that 
account ; yet, where wheat has become habituated to be 
sown late, it will do tolerably well. The later it is sown, 
however, the more seed is requisite. When early sow^n, a 
bushel to the acre is believed to be sufficient ; but when 
sown later, a bushel and a half, or more, may be necessary.' 
The estimate of seed, however, should be formed not so 
much from the capacity of any particular measure, as from 
the number of grains which that measure contains. The 
larger and fuller the seed is, the greater quantity by measure 
will be required ; the smaller, the less quantity. Much, 
therefore, must be left to the discretion of the farmer, who 
must take into consideration the time of sowing, the quality 
and preparation of the soil, as well as the plumpness or the 
shrivelled state of the seed wheat. 

If naked summer fallows are used at all, they may as well 
be made preparatory to a crop of wheat. It may sometimes 
be expedient to suspend, for one season, the raising of crops 
of any sort on land which is exhausted or greatly infested 
with weeds ; and during the summer and autumn plough and 
liarrow it several times, and thus thoroughly subdue it. 
When such a process is adopted, wheat is generally the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 115 

succeeding crop. The custom of naked fallowing, however, 
is not much approved of in modern husbandry, and that 
mode of preparing for wheat is rarely adopted by scientific 
cultivators. Sir John Sinclair says, 'The raising clean, 
smothering, green crops, and feeding stock with them upon 
the land, is not only much more profitable, as far as relates 
to the value of the crop substituted in lieu of a fallow, but is 
also a more effectual method of procuring large crops of 
wheat, or any other crop, which may succeed the greeii 
crop.' There is a disadvantage sometimes attending fallows, 
which we apprehend may be more detrimental in our climate 
than in that of Great Britain. Land which is kept in a 
light and pulverized state is liable to be washed away by vio- 
lent rains, and the showers of our summer season are usually 
more plentiful, and fall with more impetuosity than those of 
England, although the mean moisture is less, and there is less 
rain falls in the course of the year on this than the other 
side of the Atlantic. 

In modern tillage, wheat more usually follows clover than 
any other crop ; and Bordley's Husbandry says, 'clover is 
the best preparative for a crop of wheat.' In such case, 
English farmers, and indeed all others who loork it rights 
give but one ploughing, and harrow in the seed by passing 
the harrow twice in a place the same way with the turrows. 
Mr. Bordley directs that the operations of ploughins^, har- 
rowing, and sowing, should immediately follow each other. 
Mr. Macro, an eminent English farmer, says, ' From upwards 
of twenty years' experience I am of opinion that the best way 
of sowing clover lands with wheat, is to plough the land ten 
or fourteea days before you sow it, that the land may have 
time to get dry, and after rain to make it dress well. I am 
at a loss to account for the wheat thriving better on lands 
which have been ploughed some time, than it does on fresh 
ploughed lands which dress as well or better; but I have 
often tried both ways on the same lands, and always found 
the former answer best.' Mr. Bordley, in attempting to ac- 
count for this effect, says, ' I conjecture that the clover plants 
being buried and the wheat sown at the same time, they both 
ferment and run into heat in the same period ; the germ 
then shoots, and the root is extremely delicate and tender for 
some days ; during which, the buried herbage obtains its 
highest degree of heat ; which, added to the internal heat of 
the germ, may, though only slightly, check and a little in- 
jure the delicate shoots of the wheat. In sprouting barley 



116 THE COMPLETE FAKMER 

for making malt, a little excess of heat in the bed checks, and 
a little more totally stops the sprouting or growth of the 
roots. Both modes give crops superior to what are produced 
on fallow. Farmers may well try both methods for deter- 
mining which to prefer ; that is, as well immediate sowing, 
on ploughing in the clover, as the method of sowing not till 
ten or fourteen days after having ploughed in the clover : 
suppose a half each way.' 

AVe believe that wheat would flourish better if it were 
buried deeper than it generally is in broad-cast sowing. Our 
opinion is founded on the following facts, relating to the 
physiology of the wheat plant. ' A grain of wheat, when 
put into the ground at the depth of three inches, undergoes 
the following transformations : as soon as the farinaceous 
matter which envelops the frame of the young plant con- 
tained within it is softened into a milky state, a germ is 
pushed out, and at the bottom of that germ small roots soon 
follow. The roots are gathering strength, whilst the germ, 
by the aid of the milky fluid, is shooting upwards ; and when 
the milk is exhausted, the roots are in activity, and are col- 
lecting nourishment for the plant from the soil itself. This 
is analogous to the weaning of the young of animals, which 
are not abandoned by the mother till they can provide for 
themselves. But the care of nature does not end here ; when 
the germ has fairly got above the surface, and become a 
plant, a set of upper roots are thrown out, close to the sur- 
face of the ground, which search all the superficial parts of 
the soil with the same activity as the under roots search the 
lower parts ; and that part of the germ which separates the 
two sets of roots is now become a channel, through which 
the lower roots supply the plant with the nourishment they 
have collected. What an admirable contrivance to secure 
the prosperity of the plant ! Two distinct sets of roots 
serve, in the first place, to fix the plant firmly in the ground, 
and to collect nourishment from every quarter. The upper 
roots are appositely situated to receive all the nourishment 
that comes raturally from the atmosphere, or artificially as 
manure, to the surface ; and serve the farther purpose of be- 
ing the base of new stems, which are tillered up, and so 
greatly increase the productiveness of the plant. The ex- 
cellence of the drill system in grain may be probably per- 
ceived in this explanation ; for in broad-cast sowing the 
seeds lie very near to the surface, and in this oituation it is 
not only more exposed to accidents arising from birds, in- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 117 

sects, and the weather, but the two sets of roots are neces- 
sarily crowded together, so as almost to become indistinct ; 
the plant is less firm, and has fewer purveyors collecting 
food for it."^ 

Dr. Deane observed, that ' wheat that is sowed in autumn, 
a clover ley excepted, should, instead of harrowing, be co- 
vered with a shallow furrow, and the surface left rough. It 
will be less in danger of being killed by the frost in winter, 
and less injured by drying winds in the following spring. 
The furrows should be left without harrowing ; for the more 
uneven the ground is the more the soil will be pulverized 
and mellowed by the frost.' But if the crop which succeeds 
the wheat crop should require a smooth bottom, the land, after 
sowing, must be harrowed, and should be rolled. Some 
husbandmen advise, when wheat is sown on a clover ley, to 
plough in the clover with a deep furrow, then plough in the 
seed wheat with a shallow furrow ; and if the next crop in the 
rotation requires a level bottom, it will be necessary to har- 
row and roll the field as smooth as possible, after having 
ploughed in the seed. 

The (greatest care should be exercised with regrard to the 
kind, quality, and preparation of seed wheat. There are many 
varieties of wheat, but winter wheat, in the United States, 
is generally distinguished by only two appellations, red wheat 
and white wheat, of which the latter is held in highest esti- 
mation. 

, In preparing your seed wheat, the first thing to be attend- 
ed to is to clear it perfectly from every injurious foreign 
substance. ' One error here may mar our whole system, and 
render our skill productive of as much evil as good. On 
poor and worn out land the evil of sowing a mixture of im- 
pure seed with grain or grass seed would be great; but 
where the ground is in high order the crop is more injured; 
the noxious plants take firmer hold, and are more difficult to 
be eradicated.'! Indeed, it would be better for a farmer to 
pick over his seed wheat by single handfuls, and make a rid- 
dle of his fingers, than to sow cockle, darnel, tares, wild tur- 
nip seeds, and other vegetable nuisances, which are as intru- 
sive as unwelcome, as tenacious of life as they are unworthy 

* Mr. Featherstonhaugh's Essay on the Principles and Practice of Ru- 
ral Economy. 

fSee a communication by 0. Fiske, Esq., New England Farmer, vol. 
i. p. 222. 



118 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

of existence. The first preparation therefore should be to 
screen, winnow, and riddle the grain till perfectly freed from 
these and other improper ingredients. When this is tho- 
roughly accomplished, washing and steeping, for the pur- 
pose of preventing smut, should meet attention. The first 
step in the processes to be instituted against smut, as recom- 
mended by Sir John Sinclair, is 'to run the grain very geiiily 
through a riddle, when not only the smut balls, but the im- 
perfect grains, and the seeds of weeds, will float, and may be 
skimmed off at pleasure.' The same author enumerates as 
modes by which smut maybe prevented, 1. The use of pure 
cold water and lime. 2. Boiling water and lime. 3. Water 
impregnated with salt. 4. Urine pickle. 5. Lye of wood 
ashes. 6. A solution of arsenic. 7. A solution of blue 
vitriol. It seems that almost any acrid, corrosive, or poison- 
ous application will secure a clean crop, if properly used for 
that purpose. 

Mr. Arthur Young sowed fourteen beds with the same 
wheat seed, which was black with smut. The first bed was 
sown with this wheat without washing, and had three hun- 
dred and seventy-seven smutty kernels. A bed sowed with 
seed washed in clean water produced three hundred and 
twenty -five smutty kernels ; washed in lime water, forty- 
three do. ; washed in lye of wood ashes, thirty-one do. ; 
washed in arsenic and salt mixture, twenty-eight do. ; steeped 
in lime water four hours, two do. : steeped in lye four hours, 
three do. ; steeped in arsenic four hours, one do. Again, 
that which was steeped in lye, as before mentioned, twelve 
hours, had none ; and that which was steeped in the same 
kind of lye twenty-four hours had none ; that also which 
was steeped twenty-four hours in lime water had none ; that 
steeped in arsenic twenty-four hours had five. 

A correspondent of the New England Farmer,"^ (who is, 
we believe, a practical and scientific agriculturist, and whose 
statements are worthy of implicit confidence,) with the sig- 
nature Berkshire, in giving directions for preparing seed 
wheat, observes: 'The only successful course is to prepare 
the seed about ten days before sowing-time. This is done 
by selecting clean and plump seed, passing it through water 
in a tub, about half a bushel at a time, and Avashing it and 
skimming off the matter that floats ; then empty it into a 
basket to drain, then lay it on a clean floor and rake in two 

* See New England Farmer, vol. i. p. 275. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 119 

quarts of slacked lime and one, quart of plaster to the 
bushel, and if too dry sprinkle on water, and continue to 
stir it until all is covered with the lime and plaster. h\ this 
way you may proceed until you have prepared your whole 
seed. Let it remain in a heap one day, then spread it and 
move it daily, until it becomes perfectly dry ; it is then fit to 
sow, and you may sow it if the land should happen to be 
quite wet.' 

We shall now speak of the liability of wheat to become 
winter-killed. Tne author of Letters of Agfricola states, as 
an objection to the cultivation of wheat in Nova Scotia, ' its 
liability to be thrown out in the spring, and thus subjecting 
the farmer U> serious inconveniences, and often disappoint- 
ment of a crop. Grasses are not exempt from the same 
hazard ; and the hopes of the year are thus blasted by a 
cause which, in many cases, will admit of remedy, in all, of 
alleviation. I am not sure but sowing- the wheat seed under 
furrow, at least four or five inches deep, in September, in 
order that it may extend its roots and take a firm hold of the 
soil before the approach of winter, and rolling it in the 
spring with the box heavily loaded, would obviate the evils 
of our climate, and enable us to cultivate that grain accord- 
ing to the improved modes of England. It ought to be re- 
collected that even there, about sixty years ago, winter wheat 
was not of general cultivation, and the heaving of the soil 
was accounted a powerful obstacle to its success. In Scot- 
land, too, during the same period, spring wheat almost uni- 
versally prevailed; and her northern and bleak position was 
thought to be incapable of any change to the better, and ut- 
terly unfriendly to autumnal semination. The zeal and indus- 
try of British farmers, combined with their skill, have baffled 
all these gloomy predictions, and taught us at once to copy 
the example of our sires, and not to despair in the race of 
improvement.' 

A method, according to the same author, made use of in 
Norfolk, England, to guard wheat against the changes and 
inclemency of winter and spring, is to adopt the following 
rotation : ' After a turnip crop, they sow barley the second 
year with clover seeds ; the third year they cut hay, and 
plough down the ley, and sow their winter Avheat on the 
matted sod. The roots of the grass bind the soil, and pre- 
vent it from heaving, which is much akin to the same effect 
produced by the tangled and bound surface of our new and 
cleared lands.' This fact may suggest another inducement 



120 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

to SOW wheat next in rotation after clover, as has been re- 
commended. 

It is well known that our lands, where the soil is at all 
suitable, Avill produce good crops of wheat when first cleared 
from their native growth of wood ; but after having been 
tilled for some years, they generally yield wheat with diffi- 
culty, and it is often found impossible to raise it by any of 
the modes commonly adopted for wheat culture. In most 
parts of Massachusetts, and in some parts of New Hamp- 
shire and Vermont, the farmers scarcely ever attempt to 
raise wheat, and still more rarely succeed when they do at- 
tempt it. Yet, we believe, wheat was a common and pro- 
fitable crop in those places in the early period of their set- 
tlement. In process of time, however, the land became ex- 
hausted of its wheat-bearing faculty, and our farmers were 
forced nearly to forego its cultivation. The same variations 
and appearances have likewise been observed in Europe. 
Wheat countries, by continued cultivation, have become 
almost incapable of yielding wheat. The cause and remedy 
of this partial barrenness, this falling off, with regard to par- 
ticular plants, was alike involved in obscurity, till modern 
discoveries in chemistry threw light on the subject. It has 
been found that the texture of every soil is defective unless 
there is a mixture of three kinds of earth, viz., clay, sand, 
and lime ; and. that lime, in some of its combinations, exists 
in wheat, both in the straw and kernel. In some soils, fer- 
tile in other respects, lime may either have no existence, or 
be found in very minute portions, and be soon exhausted. 
If lime be a necessary constituent of wheat, and is not in 
the soil where we attempt to raise wheat, it must be sup- 
plied by art, or wheat will not grow. Or if native lime 
exists in the soil in small quantities, the land may bear 
wheat till the lime is exhausted, and then become incapable 
of producing that plant, till a fresh supply of lime, marl, pul- 
verized bones, or some other calcareous substance, is added. 
Mr. Young says, (Letters of Agricola, p. 299,) ' It cannot 
be denied, that since the plentiful use of lime has been 
adopted, lands in Europe will produce wheat which other- 
wise were incapable of bearing it ;' and quotes several in- 
stances in proof of this assertion. Dr. Anderson likewise 
gives an account of a field which had a top-dressing of lime 
for the purpose of raising wheat, but the lime, by accident, 
was not applied to a small patch of the field, and in that 
patch there was no crop, while every part of the field to 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 121 

which the lime was applied produced wheat luxuriantly. It 
would be easy to adduce many more instances to prove that 
lime, in Ureat Britain, is considered not only usefdl, but 
indispensable for the production of wheat. A British farmer, 
we believe, rarely undertakes to raise wheat luithout tlie use 
of lime, and an American farmer as rarely undertakes to 
raise it with the use of that substance for manure. 

If the foregoing premises are correct, it would seem not 
impossible, and indeed scarcely improbable, that by the judi- 
cious use of lime, or other calcareous substances, wheat may 
be as well raised in New England as in the western states. 
The subject is certainly of very great importance, and de- 
serves repeated experiments. 

It will be objected against the use of lime, 1st, that it is 
too dear to be used for manure ; and, 2dly, that our farmers 
do not know how to apply it, and, as it is a powerful sub- 
stance, it may do more harm than good, unless in the hands 
of a ' hemist, or one practically acquainted with its operation. 
With regard to the dearness of lime, we are informed that 
there is no want of limestone in almost every part of the 
United States; and probably, by proper search, many more 
limestone quarries might be discovered in New England 
than are at present known. And the price of lime would, 
doubtless, be diminished by increasing the demand, because 
if great quantities were wanted for agricultural purposes, a 
greater number of persons would find their account in making 
a business of manufacturing it ; improvements would be in- 
troduced in the processes connected with its manufacture, 
and of course it would be afforded cheaper. Besides, small 
quantities would alone be needed for the purpose of furnish- 
ing that calcareous matter which nature inclines to incorpo- 
rate into the substance of wheat, clover, &c., and probably a 
top-dressing of two or three bushels to the acre would be of 
essential benefit, though doubtless more would, generally, be 
preferable. Mr. Young says ' a small quantity of quicklime 
scattered on the surface of lands newly cleared will prove 
highly beneficial during the whole length of time they re- 
main untilled. Thirty bushels of shells [lime fresh from the 
kiln] to the acre, slacked into a fine powder, will produce 
the most surprising effects, if not on the first crop of wheat, 
at all events, on the verdure, luxuriance, and quality of the 
future pasture.'* A writer in the Museum Rusticum, an 

* Letters of Agricola. 
11 



122 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

English work, says, ' that he sows his wheat without laying 
on any manure, but, early in the spring, gives a top-dressing 
of twenty bushels of lime, pulverized, and mixed intimately 
with forty bushels of sand ; and if the weather be dry, he 
doubles the quantity of sand.' We are disposed to believe 
that at least lime enough for light top-dressings might be 
easily procured by almost every cultivator in the Union. 
And such light dressings, if our theory is correct, would be 
all that is indispensable to the production of wheat. 

With regard to the mode of applying lime, nothing can 
be more simple. It should be evenly spread, after being 
water slacked, on the surface of the soil, and not ploughed 
in, or, if ploughed in, it should be with a very shallow fur- 
row, because its tendency is to sink below the reach of culti- 
vation. If used in a quick or burning state, it will be safest 
to mix it with about double its quantity of sand, loam, clay, 
or some other material. The additional material may be 
made to correspond with the wants of the soil to which it is 
applied. Thus, if the soil has too much clay, mix sand with 
your lime ; if too much sand, mix finely pulverized clay, &c. 

It is said that British farmers apply lime in great quanti- 
ties directly from the kiln in its most caustic state, even to 
land which is replete with putrescent or vegetable manure, 
and run the risk of consuming or wasting the manure by its 
corrosive qualities. But the soil of Great Britain is generally 
wetter than ours, and of course the lime sooner becomes 
mild. Besides, there is a great difference in the strength of 
lime, and that of the United States may be, generally speak- 
ing, stronger than the English lime. In short, we should 
advise every farmer to use quicklime as manure, in small 
quantities at first, mixed with a large proportion of earth, or 
some other substance, to dilute it, and thus take care not to 
burn his seed, his fingers, or his growing vegetables. And 
with these precautions, we would make use of it for wheat 
as a top-dressing in spring. We would likewise try it mixed 
with wood ashes, together with earth ; for we have been 
told by a practical farmer, that ashes and lime form a union 
much more valuable than either separate. 

In an article on the culture of winter wheat, by R. H. 
Gardener, Esq., of Gardiner, Maine, the writer observes, 
' The cultivation of winter wheat is preferable to that of sum- 
mer on a great variety of accounts. It is sown and the 
ground prepared in a season of much greater leisure. One 
of the great disadvantages of our northern climate is the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 123 

extreme shortness of our spring, so that it is difficult for our 
farmers to complete the work which is absolutely necessary 
to be done, after the frost is out of the ground, and before 
the season of planting is over. If, therefore, any work, as 
the sowing of wheat, can be advantageously postponed till 
the autunm, it is of sfreat importance. The winter wheat is 
less liable to injury from insects than the summer; mine has 
never suffered from them. It affords good fall feed, and the 
larger quantity of roots and stubble to be ploughed in makes 
the land in a better state for the next crop. The grain is 
heavier, and the same number of pounds will yield a larger 
quantity of flour, and of a much superior quality. From my 
experience, I should recommend that winter wheat should 
not be sowed later than the middle of September, that the 
soil on which it is sowed should be of a light loam, and that 
about five pecks of seed be sown to the acre. I have also 
found the use of plaster on wheat advantageous, as also roll- 
ing the wheat, after it is well up. 

To procure new varieties of wheats, (says Mr. Loudon,) 
the ordinary mode is to select from a field a spike or spikes 
from the same stalk which has the qualities sought for, such 
as larger grains, thinner chaff', stifi'er straw, a tendency to 
< irliness or lateness, &c. ; and picking out the best grains 
irom such ear or ears, to sow them in suitable soil, in an 
open, airy part of a garden. When the produce is ripe, se- 
lect the best ears, and from these the best grains, and sow 
these ; and so on, till a bushel or more is obtained, which 
may then be sown in a field apart from any other wheat. In 
this way many of the varieties of the common winter wheat 
have been obtained. "^ Other varieties have assumed their 
distinctive marks from having been long cultivated on the 
same scil and climate, and take local names, as the Hertford- 
shire red, Essex white, &c. 

Marshall (Yorkshire) mentions a case in which a man of 
accurate observation, having in a piece of wheat perceived a 
plant of uncommon strength and luxuriance, diffusing its 
branches on every side, marked it, at harvest gathered it 
separately, and thus introduced a new and superior variety. 

Jonathan Townsend, of Andover, Connecticut, gives the 
following directions for obtaining good crops of wheat, pre- 
ceded by Indian corn. 

' Select a piece of ground suitable for Indian corn and 

* See also N. E. Farmer, vol. x. p. 309. 



124 THE COMPLETE FARBIER 

winter grain ; spread on evenly twenty common cart loads 
or upwards of stable and yard manure to the acre ; plough 
it in just three inches deep and no more ; harrow it length- 
wise of the furrow ; cross mark for the rows, three and a half 
feet for the small, or four feet for the large kind of corn ; let 
the corn be properly tended, by keeping the ground loose 
with the plough and hoe and free from weeds ; and if the 
season is not very unpropitious, you may calculate on a 
large crop. But if the ground is hara and stony, so that it 
cannot be ploughed shallow as above mentioned, then plough 
as shallow as possible, and spread on the manure afterwards 
and harrow it in, and proceed as above directed; the crop 
will not probably disappoint your expectations. As soon as 
the corn has become ripe, or too hard to roast, and if possi- 
ble before ii is touched with frost, cut it up, bind and carry 
it out of the field, and shock it in the usual way. If you 
have drawn the earth around your corn into hills, (which I 
would advise never to do in any case,) harrow the hills down 
with a heavy harrow, plough three inches deep, and spread 
on evenly four or five loads of well rotted manure,"^ and sow 
three pecks of good clear wheat to the acre, and plough it in 
with a light horse plough ; and unless something disastrous 
happens, the summer following your garner may be filled 
with the finest wheat. The same directions will apply to 
ground planted with potatoes. 1 would insure a crop sown 
on ground thus managed for ten per cent, less than if sown 
on a summer fallow in the ordinary way.' 

Wheat is subject to several diseases ; the most common 
and generally injurious are mildew or rust and smut. Some 
writers assert that mildew is caused by a minute parasitic 
fungus or mushroom, which fastens on the leaves and glumes 
or stems of the living plant. The roots of this fungus, in- 
tercepting the sRp intended by nature for the nourishment 
of the grain, render it lean and shrivelled, rob it of its flour, 
and the straw becomes black and rotten, unfit for fodder. 

Mr. Butler, in The Farmer's Mamcal, says, in substance, 
that the rust on wheat commences in July, at the time of 
the filling of the kernel in the ear, when a combination of 
heat and moisture brinsf into action rich manures, and forces 



* It has generally been advised not to apply manure to a wheat crop 
the same year the wheal is sown, but the small quantity mentioned above 
•would, perhaps, serve as a top-dressing, without giving too great luxuri- 
ance to the straw, and cause it to be mildewed or blasted. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 125 

into the straw, which has now finished its growth, more juices 
than the kernel can take up, being already filled out. These 
juices burst the straw, or pass through the natural pores of 
the stalk. When these juices come to the air, they lose by 
evaporation their thinner parts, become glutinous, and form 
the matter called rust or mildew. 

Willich's Encyclopedia observes, ' Common wheat is more 
subject to this destructive disease than that which is bearded, 
especially if the la;nd has been neicly dunged.'' Other writers, 
likewise, attribute this disorder to the application of fresh 
dung, in too great quantity. 

The remedies against rust or mildew, according to Sir 
John Sinclair, are as follows : 

1. Cultivating hardy sorts of wheat. 

2. Early sowing. 

3. Raising early varieties. 

4. Thick sowing. 

5. Changes of seed. 

6. Consolidatinor the soil. 

7. Using saline manures. 

8. Improving the course of crops ; and, 

9. Extirpating all plants that are receptacles of rust. 

10. Protecting the wheat plants by rye, tares, and other 
crops. The above remedies are enlarged upon by Sir John 
Sinclair, in The Code of Agriculture, but his observations 
are too voluminous to quote at large in this place. 

Very able and instructive essays on the culture of wheat, 
by the Rev. Henry Colman, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, 
were published in the New England Farmer, vol. xii, pages 
25, 49, 57, 65, 73. Mr. Colman gives in detail many expe- 
riments, some of which were made by himself He states, 
in substance, that he sowed three acres of winter wheat on 
some of the best land in the Deerfield (Mass.) meadows. 
The land was green sward, turned up in the fall, rolled and 
harrowed, and the seed soaked in brine, limed, and sowed at 
the rate of two and a half bushels to the acre, on the 27th of 
October. One-half the field was abundantly manured, and 
to the other no manure was applied. The seed came up 
finely, and nothing could exceed the beauty and luxuriance 
of the growth, a greater part of the field averaging more than 
five feet in height. 

' Above half the field, including an equal portion of the 

manured and that not manured, was passed over twice in 

the spring, after the grain had got to be six inches in height, 
11# 



126 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

with a light harrow drawn by one yoke of oxen ; and three 
weeks after was subjected to the same process, according to 
the method practised in France, as mentioned by the late 
president of the New York Agricultural society, in his re- 
cent communication to that body. The effect of this was to 
destroy very few of the plants, and to render the growth of 
what remained much more luxuriant, producing such an in- 
crease of the stem and such an extension of the heads, as to 
attract the notice of the most casual observer, and to induce 
several persons, who were ignorant of the process to which it 
had been subjected, to inquire for the cause of the difference 
in the two parts of the field, and to ask if a different kind of 
seed had been used. 

* After all, however, to my extreme disappointment, the 
whole jfield has been blasted, and I shall hardly get back the 
amount of the seed sown, and that in a small shrivelled grain. 
The crop is housed, but will scarcely repay the expense of 
threshing. 

* Now that this result was not owing to the use of stable 
dung is obvious, because none was used ; and in that part 
of the field where the blight appeared to commence, and to 
make most rapid progress, no manure whatever was used. 

' It was not owing to the want of the specific property in 
the soil, as far as that is to be found in lime and slaughter- 
house manure, for both of th^se were employed ; the seed 
was limed, and the above manure copiously applied. 

* It is not to b3 attributed to the luxuriance of the crop, 
for several pieces, as I learn in my neighborhood, have suf- 
fered equally and from the same cause, when the cultivation 
was by no means so high. 

' It is not a time of universal failure, for a good deal in 
this vicinity is perfectly healthy and sound, and I have al- 
ready reaped on the same farm a small piece of wheat, say 
half an acre, on higher land, which was healthy and fair, 
though from the condition of the land it gave but a small 
product. This, however, though sowed at the same time, 
was ready for the sickle more than a week sooner than the 
other, from the drier and poorer quality of the soil. 

' What then was the cause of the blast ? I will not as- 
sume to decide this question, but as far as appears, it was 
atmospheric, occurring at a particular state of the plant, 
which rendered it peculiarly liable to blight. As the wheat 
was filling fast, we had frequent showers, and much of what 
we Yankees call muggy weather ; one day in particular the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 127 

air was sultry, the heat intense, and the showers frequent, 
with intervals of sunshine, and the earth was steaming most 
profusely. An intelligent farmer in my employ, accustomed 
to the cultivation of this grain in one of the best wheat dis- 
tricts in New York, remarked to me that this was very se- 
vere weather for my wheat, and that he feared I should lose 
it. The rust in fact appeared for the first time the next day, 
and rapidly extended itself over the whole field, presenting 
no difference either ir the manured or in the parts of the field 
not manured, and of course less luxuriant. Had my wheat 
been sown earlier, so as to have been farther advanced, it 
would probably have escaped the blight ; had it been sown 
later, so as not to have been so far advanced as it was, per- 
haps, I shduld have been as fortunate ; but the occurrence 
of such a peculiar state of the atmosphere being wholly ac- 
cidental, at least as far as we are concerned, it is impossible 
to make any certain calculation about it.' 

In the succeeding number, Mr. Colman quotes Sir John 
Sinclair's General Report of the Agriculture of Scotland^ 
Husbandry of Scotla7id, a different work, by the same au- 
thor, and a Treatise on Rural Affairs, by John Brown, of 
Markle, to show that wet and warm weather, when the ker- 
nel was beginning to form, had usually been accompanied 
with mildew in wheat, in Great Britain. In No. Ill, the 
writer states in substance, that the crops of wheat, both 
summer and winter, have been in this vicinity good and 
abundant, and on an average full twenty bushels to the acre. 
In the town of Northfield, Massachusetts, ' where three years 
since the article was scarcely cultivated, I have heard the 
crops of this year (1833) rated as high as seven thousand 
bushels. I think this must be an over-estimate ; but any 
thing like an approach to this, or even an adequate supply 
for the population of the town, which is believed to be fully 
secured, is certainly a considerable event in our agricultural 
history.' 

The writer states that William Pomroy, of Northfield, 
Massachusetts, from twenty-three acres of old meadow land, 
on the banks of the Connecticut, harvested more than five 
hundred bushels of winter and spring wheat, ' of as fine a 
sample as ever floated on the Erie canal. A part of it was 
reckoned to yield fully thirty bushels to the acre.' Most of 
this wheat was sowed very early, and was too forward to be 
injured by the sultry and foggy weather of July. One piece, 
however, was blighted in consequence of late sowing. He 



128 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

likewise states facts relative to the culture and circumstances 
attending crops of wheat grown by William Wells, Esq., in 
Shelburne, Mr. Charles Williams, of the same place ; Mr. 
Orrin Dole, of Deerfield ; Mr. Augustus Wells and John 
Wilson, Esq., of the same place; Dr. Hastings, captain 
Hastings, Mr. Morton, and major Porter, of Hatfield, Massa- 
chusetts; Mr. Ames and Hooker Leavit, Esq., of Greenfield, 
Massachusetts ; Mr. William Russell, of Middletown, Con- 
necticut; Mr. Jeremiah Wadsworth, of Hartford ; Dr. Payne, 
of Worcester; and Justin Ely, Esq., of West Springfield. 

Mr. Colman states that ' Early sowing, from the best ob- 
servation I have made of the wheat crops which have come 
under my notice, from the united and decided opinion of the 
British wheat growers, and from many American authori- 
ties, is to be strongly advised. The reason is obvious : the 
wheat crop should be as far advanced in the spring as possi- 
ble, that it may perfect its seed before the hot and sultry 
weather usual in July.' 

Sir John Sinclair says, ' If a field be evidently affected 
[with mildew] and the progress of vegetation stopped, the 
only way to preserve the straw and the grain, if any has 
been formed, from being entirely lost, is to cut it down imme- 
diately, even though the crop should not be ripe. The straw 
is thus preserved, either for food or litter, and it is maintain- 
ed that any nourishment in the stem will pass into and feed 
the grain, and make a greater return than could well be ex- 
pected.' 

Black Sea Wheat. Payson Williams, Esq., of Fitch- 
burg, Massachusetts, has introduced into this country a new 
kind of wheat with the above appellation, which he has thus 
described in a communication published in the Northern 
Farmer. 

The wheat mentioned by you as grown by me the past 
season I not only consider as a remarkable crop in quantity, 
fifty-five bushels and three quarters, (it being spring wheat,) 
but very excellent in quality. Its history, so far as I am 
able, shall be given. Three years since, my brother, captain 
Stephen Williams, brought me one bushel from Smyrna, 
which he obtained, as he informed me, from a ship while dis- 
charging a cargo of that kind of grain from the abundant 
shores of the Black sea ; hence its name. Observing by the 
map that we were in about the same latitude, I made trial 
the first season of but one peck, (not being certain that it 
was spring wheat.) The product was large in straio ; but 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 129 

owing to our unpropitious storms and bad weather for a 
wheat crop, the kernel was not so fair as the original. No- 
thing discouraged, however, I sowed from this product rather 
than the original ; the product from which more than an- 
swered my expectation. From this last product I sowed, 
the I9tli of last April, two bushels and a quarter on one a.'re 
of land which had potatoes grown on it the previous year, 
(crop, six hundred and thirteen bushels and a half.) This 
field, immediately previous to soAving, had been ploughed 
deep and fine. After the grain was harrowed in across the 
furrows the field was rolled in, and left from that time to 
putting in the sickle. 1 would here observe, however, that 
my usual custom has been to sow on about twenty bushels 
of orood unleached wood ashes to the acre, so soon as the 
wheat plants are two inches in height, and in a damp morn- 
ing, if ^uch can be had. The value of such dressitig I have 
considered to consist, 1st, in the caustic quality of the 
ashes, as it is a preventive to the ravages of the white mag- 
got which sometimes preys at the roots of the young plants; 
2d, considered as a manure rr top-dressing, it no doubt con- 
tributes to the earlier perfecting the kernel or berry, and at 
the same time to a more vigorous growih of the straw. 

The seed was prepared as usual, by stirring into the heap 
thick whitewash made from quicklime, until every kernel 
received a coat of the same ; say one quart of unslacked 
lime to each bushel of wheat. I prefer lime to lye made of 
wood ashes, [only] on account of its whiteness, thereby 
rendering it easier to throw the seed (broad-cast) more even- 
ly on the field. 

The character of the soil is a deep loam, intermixed with 
cobble sioncs. Its natural forest growth had been oak, (white 
and red,) beech, rock maple, chestnut, and hemlock. 

The character of the wheat appears to differ from our 
usual kinds, by the straw being much taller ; (some of which 
was five feet ten inches in height ;) and although it is what 
we call bearded, and the heads of two varieties, similar in 
appearance to our red and white, yet there is a variety, (say 
a sixth part perhaps,) which, notwithstanding the head is 
short, yet the kernels are so closely set that I have repeat- 
edly counted over eighty kernels from one ear or head. 
This variety I call the pearl, from its clear appearance. The 
kernel throughout the crop was very plump and large ; the 
straw stout as well as tall, bearing the beating of our New 
England storms better than any I have heretofore grown. 1 



130 THE COMPLETE FAHMER 

have not the least doubt but it will succeed well where other 
varieties have prospered, and have no hesitation in believing 
it will be a valuable acquisition for many years to come to 
the agricultural interests of our country ; which, aside from 
selfish considerations, I most heartily reciprocate your views 
in wishing to advance, believing this to be the chief corner- 
stone of our happy republic. 

In the mean time, if this contains any thing which you 
may think will subserve the interests of agriculture, you are 
at liberty to publish the same. 

Your obedient servant, 

PAYSON WILLIAMS. 



KYE. The farmer who has it in his power to drive his 
business, instead of being driven by it, will do well to sow 
his winter rye some time between the middle of August and 
the middle of September. If it be sowed so early it will be 
less apt to winter-kill, will require less seed, the growth will 
be stouter, and the produce greater, other things being equal, 
than if the sowing was deferred till late in autumn. 

Some foreign writers on agriculture assure us that winter 
rye and spring rye are of the same species ; and the Far- 
mer's Assistant says ' there is but one kind of rye ; but this 
may be made winter rye or spring rye, by gradually habi- 
tuating it to different times of sowing. Take winter rye, 
for instance, and sow it later and later each fall, and it may 
at length be sown in the spring, and become spring rye. 
On the contrary, sow spring rye very late in the fall at first, 
and you may gradually sow it earlier each year, until it may 
be sown in May, and used the first season for pasture or 
mowing, and then grown to perfection the second year.' 
The same opinion is likewise expressed in Deane's New 
England Farmer. 

Rye is capable of being cultivated on most kinds of land, 
but the light sandy soils, where wheat will not thrive, are 
the sorts of soil on which it will, generally speaking, be 
found most profitable to raise this kind of produce. Sir 
John Sinclair observes that ' this species of grain is not so 
extensively cultivated in Scotland as it ought to be ; (for 
weighty crops of it might be raised on soils of the most po- 
rous and arid nature, and upon almost pure sand along the 
sea-shore ;) and the winter sort, without which the people 
living on the coasts of the Baltic could hardly be subsisted. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 131 

is almost unknown. A correspordent informs me that he 
has had thirty-five bushels of rye per English acre on land 
that would not have produced twenty bushels of oats. In- 
deed, oats, sown along side of the rye, upon the same field, 
and on land as nearly as could be judged of the same quali- 
ty, were scarcely worth the expense of reaping. On moor- 
ish land, rye has been found a more certain crop than oats. 
Mr. George Culley remarks that rye, like oats, will answer 
in crude soils Avithout lime, or calcareous manures, which 
renders that crop peculiarly calculated for waste lands when 
first brought into cultivation.' . 

Lands which will produce tolerable crops of wheat had 
better be cultivated for the purpose of raising wheat than 
rye. And, if we may believe what English writers tell us 
relative to this subject, the use of lime for manure will often 
so far change the nature of a poor soil proper only for rye, 
that wheat may be made its substitute. Mr. Marshall, in 
his Rural Economy of Yorkshire, says, ' Before the use of 
lime was prevalent, much rye was grown on the lighter lands 
upon the margin of the Vale, and in the Moorlands scarcely 
any other crops than rye and oats were attempted. Now, 
rye is principally confined to the Moorland dales; and even 
there the alteration of soils by lime has been such that wheat 
has become the more prevalent crop. 

' Nevertheless on light, sandy soils, rye is generally more 
profitable than wheat, and the bread which is made from a 
mixture of the two grains is here esteemed more wholesome 
to people in general than that which is made from wheat 
alone.' 

When rye is soAvn upon light land it ripens much earlier 
than on a cold stifll^ ground, and it is said by some writers 
that by continuing to sow on such a soil for two or three 
years, it will be forwarded so much as to ripen a month ear- 
lier than that which has been raised upon strong cold ground. 
For this reason, those who sow their rye late will do well to 
provide themselves with this early seed. 

Dr. Elliot informs, that if rye be sowed successively every 
year upon the same land, both the crop and the land will be 
greatly improved, insomuch that some grounds, which would 
yield but five bushels to the acre at first, have in time pro- 
duced a crop of fifteen bushels, without the charge of ma- 
nure ; and Dr. Deane observed that he ' had known the same 
spot produce twenty crops of this grain in succession, ex- 
cepting that it was planted with Indian corn once or twice, 



132 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

to subdu3 the weeds, and that the crops yearly increased in- 
stead of diminishing.' But this, it is said, will not be the 
case, unless the soil is naturnlly of a good quality, and the 
stubble be compii^tely turned under immediately after reap- 
ing. If the ground is siiffered to remain after harvest with- 
out being ploughed till the stubble is dried and shrivelled so 
that it possesses but little substance, and the seeds of weeds 
have had time to ripen, the crops of grain in each succeeding 
year will be diminished, and the weeds will take an almost 
exclusive possession of the soil. 

The Farmer'' s Assistant is opposed to the raising of suc- 
cessive crops of rye, unless as much as twenty-live bushels 
of this grain can be yearly had from the acre ; as such an 
annual product would probably afford a clear profit to the 
acre of half that number of bushels ; and such a profit, he 
observes, in some of the lighter and in some of the harder 
kinds of soil is not to be despised. The same writer re- 
commends sowing winter rye and spring rye alternately, in 
order that the ground might, every other year, be enriched 
by the application of gypsum. ' The growing crop of rye,' 
he says, ' receives no benefit from the application of this ma- 
nure ; but it quickly covers the ground with a fine sward of 
white clover ; and as soon as the ground is thus swarded, it 
is in good condition for bearing any crop. Let the gypsum, 
therefore, be sown in the spring, on thvj growing crop of 
winter rye, and by the middle of October following the 
ground will be covered Math white clover ; turn this sward 
over in the latter end of the fall, and in the spring sow a 
crop of spring rye ; and, as soon as this is taken off, turn 
the ground over again for a crop of winter rye ; and in the 
spring repeat the process of manuring with gypsum, as be- 
fore, for a crop of spring rye ; and thus proceed with these 
crops alternately.' 

Some sow their winter rye at the last hoeing of Indian 
corn, and hoe it in ; and this Dr. Deane observed was a good 
practice when it is sown on flat land, or on a rich or heavy 
soil, where grain is apt to suffer by the frost of winter ; for 
the plants of rye will be mostly on the corn hills, and so 
escape injury from frost ; at least they will most commonly 
escape, or so many of them as are necessary to give a good 
crop. The plants that are killed will be those in the low 
spaces betwixt the hills. 

Rye is not only a proper crop on land which is too poor 
to produce a good crop of wheat, but it should be sown on a 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 133 

soil which is very rich, in preference to wheat, because it is 
less apt to g-row so rank as to lodge or blast than wheat. 
It is a very suitable crop for drained bogs. In the first vo- 
lume of Communications to the British Board of Agricul- 
ture, page 341, in speaking of the culture of rye in Russia, 
it is observed that the produce from boggy lands drained and 
sowed with rye is upwards of forty bushels to one sowed; 
and they generally use a much smaller quantity of seed in 
sowing such lands. Another proof that rye will bear very 
plentiful manuring may be adduced from a case reported by 
Mr. L'Hommedieu, of New York, who observed, in substance, 
that a neighbor of his manured twenty square rods of poor, 
gravelly, djry soil with four thousand Menhaden fish, and 
sowed it with rye, at the rate of about one bushel to the 
acre. In the spring it was twice successively eaten off, close 
to the ground, by sheep breaking in, after it had acquired a 
height of nine inches the first time, and six inches the latter. 
Thesj croppings, however, only served to make it grow 
thicker and stronger than before ; and when harvested it 
produced sixteen bushels, or at the rate of one hundred and 
twenty-eight bushels to the acre ; giving to the owner, ac- 
cording to the calculation of Mr. L'Hommedieu, at the rate 
of eighty-five dollars to the acre of clear profit."^ 

In the Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture, 
vol. i, page 82, it is said, ' Rye should be sowed the last 
week in August, or the first week in September, at the rate 
of about thirty-six quarts per acre ; some say forty-eight 
quarts. But if it is not sowed at that time, it ought to be 
delayed until late in November, so that it may not come up 
until spring. A. Worthington had a good crop, which he 
sowed in a January snow storm. Rye raised on upland 
makes much better flour than that which is raised on low or 
damp land.' 

Rye may be sown in autumn to great advantage for green 
fodder for cattle and sheep, particularly the latter, in the 
spring. Ewes and lambs will derive much benefit from it, 
at a time when little or no other green fe?d can be procured. 
When it is meant for this purpose it should not only be sow- 
ed early in autumn, but should be sowed thicker than when 
it :s intended to stand for a crop of seed. Some say that it 

* Transactions of the New York Agricultural Society, part 3, pp. 35, 
36. This account may seem incredible, but Mr. L'Hommedieu declared 
that it was attested to by many credible witnesses. 
12 



134 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

may well be mowed for hay two or three times in the course 
of the summer ; and this piece of husbandry is recommended 
for farmers whose lands are mostly dry or unsuitable for 
grass. 

The quantity of seed to be sown on an acre should vary 
according to the soil, the time of sowing, and the purposes 
for which it is intended. If it be sowed in the latter part of 
August, or beginning of September, and is intended to re- 
main for a seed crop, the quantity should vary from thirty- 
two to forty-eight quarts, according to the goodness of soil. 
Later sowing requires more seed, and in some cases two 
bushels to an acre will not be too great a quantity. Ban- 
nister's Husbandry says, ' When this grain is sown for sheep 
feed, it is proper to allow three bushels to the acre, for where 
the blade, haulm, or stalks form the primary object, a much 
larger proportion of seed is requisite than when the crop is 
meant for harvesting.' 

Mr. Adams Knight, of Newbury, Massachusetts, received 
a premium of twenty dollars, from the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural society, for a crop of rye, obtained as follows : 

' The soil is a gravelly loam, rather dry than otherwise. 
The land was planted with corn in the spring of 1831, and 
manured in the hills with about six cords of manure to the 
acre, of common quality. In the month of August follow- 
ing, said acre was sowed with three pecks of seed, and hoed 
in the usual manner. In the month of August of the present 
year [1832] the rye was reaped and threshed, and found to 
measure forty-five bushels and five-eighths of a bushel. 
There is standing on said acre of land seventy-five apple- 
trees, from two to six inches through at the root.'^ 

The same year Mr. Gideon Foster, of Charlestown, Mas- 
sachusetts, obtained thirty-eight and one-sixteenth bushels 
of rye from one acre, as follows: 

* The land is bordering on, and near the mouth of Mystic 
river. The soil is principally a black loam, with clay bot- 
tom. In 1831 it was planted with potatoes, with a moderate 
supply of manure, and yielded an ordinary crop. The pota- 
toes were lemoved the last week in September, the land well 
ploughed and harrowed in the usual way, with one and a 
half bushels of seed to the acre. I owe my success princi- 
pally to the use of night manure, and to that in consequence 
of its being well prepared by age, and thoroughly mixed with 

* N. E. Farmer, vol. xi. p. 238. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 135 

a large proportion of earth, and frequently removed by the 
fork and the shovel ; so that in this way, being ripened for 
use, it went immediately (not to burn, as when applied green 
or new, but) to nourish and fertilize the soil. There was 
early in the spring of the present year spread on the field 
about eight cords of the above described manure. The field 
was harvested the latter part of August, the grain threshed 
soon after, and measured by the purchaser, whose certificate 
followed, showing the product to be sixty-one and three- 
fourths bushels, or thirty-eight bushels and two quarts to the 
acre."^ 

The following is from the ' Transactions of the Essex Agri- 
cultural Society.^ 

To the Trustees of the Essex Agricultural Society. 

Gentlemen, — Having for many years past been more than 
commonly successful in raising large crops of winter rye by 
a process of cultivation which, I believe, is entirely new, I 
have been induced, by the suggestion of some gentlemen 
whose judgment I very much respect, to submit for your 
consideration a statement of the mode of culture, with the 
produce. And, that the success of the experiment this sea- 
f n may not appear to be altogether accidental, it will, per- 
haps, be as well to communicate the result of the process for 
the three or four previous years. 

The land on which the experiment has been conducted is 
situated on the Merrimack, about a mile and a half east of 
Haverhill bridge ; and came into possession of my fiither in 
1827. The soil is a sand, approaching to loam as it recedes 
from the river. Perhaps the term plain land (by which it 
usually passes) will better convey an idea of the quality of 
the soil. It is altogether too light for grass. The crops we 
find most profitable to cultivate on it are winter rye, Indian 
corn, potatoes, and to some extent turnips. Oats might 
probably be raised to advantage, were it not that the land is 
completely filled with the w^eed commonly called charlick, 
which renders it entirely unfit for any spring crop, excepting 
such as can be hoed. The crops of rye on the neighboring 
soil of the same nature vary, I believ^e, from seven or eight 
to twelve or thirteen bushels per acre, according to the culti- 
vation, and their approximation to the river. We usually 
raise on this land from thirteen to thirty bushels of Indian 

* N. E. Farmer, vol. xi. p. 243. 



136 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

corn per acre. Potatoes are very good in quality, but the 
quantity is quite small ; not sufficient to be profitable, were 
it not that the land is very easily cultivated. A 

In the summer of 1827, we sowed three bushels of winter ■ 
rye near the river, on about two acres of land, which pro- 
duced twenty-eight bushels. 

In 1828, we sowed four bushels on four acres of land run- 
ning the whole extent of the plain from the river. This 
piece was sowed in the spring with oats ; but they were com- 
pletely smothered with charlick, and about the middle of 
June, the whole crop was mowed to prevent the charlick 
seeding. By about the middle of August, a second crop of 
charlick having covered the land, it was ploughed very care- 
fully, in order completely to bury the charlick ; and then. 
suffered to remain until the l'5th of September, when we be- 
gan sowing the rye in the following manner. A strip of 
land about twelve yards wide was ploughed very evenly, to 
prevent deep gutters between the furrows, and the seed im- 
mediately sown upon the furrow and harrowed in ; then 
another strip of the same width, and so on, until the whole 
was finished. We found the oat stubble and charlick en- 
tirely rotted, and the land appeared as if it had been well 
manured, though none had been applied to this part since it 
had been in our possession. The rye sprung very quick and 
vigorously, having evidently derived great benefit from being 
sown and sprouted before the moisture supplied by the de- 
caying vegetable matter in the soil had evaporated to any 
considerable extent. This crop produced one hundred and 
thirty-three bushels. 

In 1829, the charlick was suffered to grow on the land 
appropriated to rye, until it had attained its growth and was 
in full blossom. The land was then ploughed very carefully, 
and the charlick completely covered in. In a short time a 
second crop appeared, more vigorous than the first. This 
also was allowed to attain its growth, and then ploughed in 
as before. A third crop soon appeared, which of course was 
destroyed, when the land was again ploughed for sowing 
about the middle of September. This piece of land was a 
parallel strip running from the river, and containing two 
acres. Two bushels of rye were sowed. The crop present- 
ed a remarkably promising appearance, and yielded seventy- 
four and a half bushels. 

In 1830, the land appropriated to rye included nearly all 
the lighter part of the soil, and owing to a pressure of busi- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



13^ 



ness was not attended to as we could have wished. It was 
ploughed in the early part of the summer ; but harrowing 
to destroy the weeds was substituted for the second plough- 
ing. This, and the unusual blight which affected all the 
grain in this part of the country, led us to anticipate a small 
crop. It yielded, however, fifteen bushels to the acre. 

The land on which the crop of rye was raised the present 
season had for three or four previous years been planted with 
Indian corn ; and owing to the extent of our tillage land, we 
have not been able to apply more than four or five loads of 
manure to the acre this season. The charlick was suffered 
to attain its growth as usual ; and on the 18th and 19th of 
June it was carefully ploughed in. The second crop was 
ploughed in on the 6th and 7th of August. On the 14th and 
15th of September it was sowed in the usual manner, name- 
ly, a small strip of land was ploughed, and the seed sown 
immediately upon the furrow, and then harrowed in ; then 
another strip of land was ploughed, and so on, until the whole 
was completed. One bushel per acre was sowed, as usual. 
The seed was originally obtained from a farmer in this vici- 
nity, and I suppose is similar to that which is generally 
used. We have never prepared our seed in any manner, but 
have directed our attention solely to the preparation of the 
land; and to this we attribute our success. Owing to the 
unusual severity of the winter, the crop was considerably 
winter-killed, but recovered very soon in the spring, except- 
ing in the midfurrows. There, as the land lies very level, the 
water settled, and so completely destroyed the rye that they 
continued bare the whole season. This would of course 
cause some diminution in the crop ; perhaps a bushel or two. 
The rye was reaped at the usual season, and, as the weather 
was favorable, immediately put into the barn. The land 
contained one acre and thirteen rods, and yielded forty-six 
bushels and three pecks : a remarkably Jine sample. 

In entering a claim for your premium, I would ask your 
attention particularly to the process of cultivation. It is I 
believe entirely new, and capable of general application. 

Sowing the seed immediately after the plough we con- 
sider very advantageous to the crop. The soil being then 
moist, causes the seed to spring immediately, and gives a 
forwardness and vigor to the plants, which they ever after 
retain. 

The process of ploughing in three crops of weeds before 
tiie seed is sown very much enriches the soil. It would be 
12# 



138 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

altogether unnecessary to attempt to refute the notion, that 
by such a process nothing more is applied to the soil than 
was before derived from it. If one could not discover by the 
light which chemistry has shed upon the subject of agricul- 
ture sufficient reasons for the contrary conclusion, observation, 
one would think, would oe sufficient to convince any intelli- 
gent man of the fact. 

And here I would suggest, that I do not consider the ex- 
periment, as we have conducted it, quite complete. To 
render it more so, in the first place, in ploughing in the 
weeds, I would not turn a furrow after the dew had evapo- 
rated. I have no doubt but that a large portion of that fer- 
tilizing quality in the soil, which (during the summer months) 
is continually exhaled from the earth, is by the dew brought 
again within our reach, and it would be wise to avail our- 
selves of the opportunity of again burying it in the soil. 
And in the second place, I would by all means use a heavy 
roller after each ploughing. It would fill all the cavities left 
by the plough, and by pressing the soil more closely to the 
weeds, at once hasten their decomposition and very much 
jretard the evaporation from the soil. 

But the land is not only very much enriched by this pro- 
cess. There is, I conceive, no method by which it can be so 
effectually cleaned. Three times during the season a fresh 
surface is presented to the atmosphere ; and each time, as 
the decaying vegetable matter increases in the soil, so is the 
exciting cause augmented to make a more vigorous effort. 
We have in this manner gone over nearly all our land which 
is invested with charlick, and the diminution of the weeds is 
quite sufficient to warrant the expectation, that in a few 
years it may be comparatively eradicated. 

Very respectfully, John Keely. 

Haverhill, Sept. 22, 1832. 



OATS. The following remarks are extracted from a com- 
munication for the New England Farmer, written by Henry 
Stevens, of Barnet, Vermont. 

' The subject which I propose is that of the more exten- 
sive cultivation of oats. Various are the kinds of oats. The 
l)arley or Scotch oats, so called, I have cultivated, but not 
with very great success ; their weight is generally about 
forty-two pounds per bushel. I have seldom been able to 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 139 

raise more than from twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre. 
The black oats I have cultivated ; their weight is about thir- 
ty-six pounds per bushel, and produce about as many bush- 
els per acre as the barley or Scotch oats. The greatest ob- 
jection I have to the barley or Scotch oats is, that they 
must be harvested suddenly after they are fit, in order to pre- 
vent waste. The common oats which are raised I consider 
preferable. My average crop of late years has been from 
forty to fifty bushels per acre, and in one instance sixty-five 
busfiels per acre. 

'I make oats principally, and generally speaking, my first 
crop in the line of a rotation of crops. I break up the piece 
intended for this crop in the fall, if possible, and in the spring 
cross plough and harrow thoroughly before I sow my grain; 
then harrow again until the turf is well pulverized ; then 
sow ten bushels of clover seed chaff' per acre, and roll it in. 
As soon as the grain is harvested, and the young clover has 
received its growth, I plough it in. This clover with the 
stubble is about equal to a common dressing of compost ma- 
nure. In the fall plough, in th e spring I cross plough, after 
taking from my compost heap thirty loads per acre, Avhich 
are carefully spread. The lot then being well harrowed and 
furrowed, is ready for planting, either with corn, potatoes, or 
turnips. This is my second crop. For my third crop I 
again sow wheat, peas, flax, oats, &c., and stock the lot down 
with herd's grass and red top, which I believe make the best 
of hay. I let the lot remain in grass three years. Thus 
you will observe I till three years, or mow or pasture three 
years. My first and third crop is principally oats. 

' I have frequently been told that oats and corn were very 
impoverishing crops ; but I find no difficulty in enriching my 
land as above stated. Ten years ago my average crop of 
corn was from thirty to forty bushels per acre ; but in pass- 
ing over a lot the second time, which was managed as above, 
in the summer of 1821, I had the satisfaction of harvesting 
ninety-six bushels of corn per acre, and received the society's 
premium. My other crops have advanced in about the same 
proportion. 

' The inquiry will naturally be made, what I do with my 
oats ? Well, sir, after I have reserved for my stock and for 
seed, I take the remainder to my mill and manufacture them 
into flour and meal. It will be understood that the oats are 
kiln dried, then hulled about as clean as rice, then ground, 
and bolted or sifted, as the case may be. That which I bolt 



140 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

is calculated to be mixed with wheat flour for bread ; in 
which case the oat flour, being kiln dried, must be scalded 
before it is mixed with the wheat flour, otherwise the bread 
will be too dry. Good oat flour, prepared as above, mixed 
with wheat flour, half and half, will make as light and plea- 
sant bread as common country wheat flour, and it will 
trouble good judges of bread to tell it from clear flour bread. 
Again, it is excellent to make butter cake, by the Yankees 
called slapjacks. The oat-meal is calculated for puddings, 
and is a substitute for rye meal to mix with corn meal or rye 
meal for bread. In either case the oat-meal must be scalded 
before it is mixed. 

' Thus after supplying my family, the remainder is for mar- 
ket. The oat flour I have generally sold in Boston and New 
York to the druggists. The meal is also purchased by the 
druggists. I have generally sold them oat flour for from four 
to five dollars per hundred, and the meal from three fifty to 
four fifty, which is by them retailed as medicine, from twelve 
to twenty cents per pound. 

' The meal is frequently bought by foreigners, by the bar- 
rel or hundred, for family use. The sale of oat-meal is at 
present rather limited ; the reason is that but very few peo- 
ple in this country, save foreigners, are acquainted with the 
use of it, except for medicine. Foreigners generally prefer 
oat-meal to flour. I really hope, both for our health and the 
interest of agriculture, that the time is not far distant, when 
oat flour and meal will be used in every family for food. 

' Much may be said as to the value of this article as medi- 
cine, as well as for food. It has been a common article for 
food in Scotland and Ireland for many years. Seldom, if 
ever, an English, Scotch, or Irish vessel sailed without a 
supply of oat-meal ; and I may say it would be well for eve- 
ry commander of an American vessel, in making up his or- 
der for ship stores, to include a sufficient quantity of oat- 
meal or flour for his voyage.' 

A writer in the Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, 
vol. v. pp. 331-2, says, ' It appears to us best, all things con- 
sidered, that the first crop, after turning over sward, should 
be oats. The reason why an oat crop should precede a po- 
tato crop is, that it not only pays well by its product for 
the year's labor, but enables the husbandman to deepen his 
ploughing, preparatory to the second year's series in the ro- 
tation.' 

We believe that oat-meal is of more value as an article of 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 141 

diet than is generally supposed in this country. Loudon, in 
his Encyclopedia of Agriculture, in giving some notices of 
the agriculture of Angus, in Scotland, observes, that 

' Oat-meal, when it is sufficiently diluted with any sort of 
liquid, is known to be laxative, aperient, wholesome, and at 
the same time a strengthening food for those engaged in 
hard labor. Engineers who superintend the excavation of 
canals have assured the reporter that those laborers who 
lived entirely on oat-meal and milk did a third more work 
than those who used butcher's meat and ardent spirits. All 
of the former saved money, while many of the latter involved 
themselves in debt. As this sort of work is done by the 
piece, it affords a fair comparison not only of the wholesome- 
ness of oat-meal in promoting health, but its power in sup- 
plying labor.' 

In harvesting oats, it is recommended to mow, instead of 
reaping them, as soon as they begin to turn yellow. If they 
are then well dried, the straw will make food for cattle, after 
being threshed, which will be eaten by the animals in pre- 
ference to the best meadow hay. 

Mr. Jacob Smith, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, is said to 
have raised, in 1833, the prodigious crop of seventy-fojtr bush- 
els and three pecks of oats on fovr-fifths of an acre. The 
average height of the plants at the time of harves*^ was esti- 
mated at five feet four inches. 



BARLEY. The following is from the pen of judge Buel, 
of Albany. 

' The soil for barley should be such as will grow good 
turnips, or other green crops, including clovers, and which 
embrace the varieties of loams and sands that are not wet, 
or very dry and poor. Indeed, I have taken my crops, and 
they have been pretty good, from my lightest turnip soils. 
Barley cannot be cultivated to advantage upon stiff, heavy, 
and wet grounds, or on such as are of a cold and tenacious 
quality. This crop occupies the ground but about three 
months ; and it is only in a dry, light, mellow soil that its 
roots can extend with sufficient facility, and supply the food 
necessary to bring the grain to rapid and perfect maturity. 

*• PrevioiLS Crop. Crops that precede this grain should be 
such as leave the ground mellow and free from weeds , 
and for this reason hoed crops are to be preferred, such as 



142 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

turnips, potatoes, peas, beans, &c. Small grains should not 
precede it ; they impoverish the soil, leave it foul, and, be- 
sides, it is contravening one of the most salutary maxims of 
husbandry to grow two dry crops in succession. It may 
follow clover ; but if the soil is heavy, the ley should be 
ploughed in autumn. Barley is successfully sown upon 
the fallDWS in England, (not summer, but autumn fallows,) 
and is sown sometimes after wheat ; but in the latter case 
the turnips are pulled, and previously fed upon the stubble ; a 
practice which I think is not likely to obtain here. 1 have 
generally sown barley after ruta baga or potatoes, these 
crops having received a good dressing of long yard or stable 
manure. 

' Manure should not be applied to the barley, but to the 
preceding crop. The short period that this grain occupies 
the ground does not afford time for the manure to decom- 
pose and yield its food to the plants ; and, if applied in ex- 
cess, it causes a too rank vegetation, and the straw lodges 
before the grain is matured. When a fallow or clover ley 
is employed and ploughed in autumn, dung may be previous- 
ly employed and ploughed under. 

' Preparation of the Ground. Where barley follows a 
root or hoed crop, one ploughing will generally suffice ; but 
in all cases a complete pulverization of the soil is necessary; 
and to effect this a roller is often of material benefit. If 
sown upon grass leys, ploughed in autumn, the spring 
ploughing should be shallow, so as to leave the sod reversed. 
But the preferable way may be to harrow the fallow, plough 
in the seed with a light furrow, and smooth off with the har- 
row. 

' The Seed and Solving. Loudon enumerates six species 
and sub-species of the barley. The kinds uniformly culti- 
vated here are the two, four, and six rowed spring, {hordeum 
vulgare and hordeum distichon.) Thin-skinned, pale, plump 
seed should be selected. I sow as soon as the ground is suffi- 
ciently dry in spring. The young grain is not hurt by the 
ordinary frosts of the latter part of April and May. I sow 
from six to eight pecks per acre, according to the richness 
of the soil and the forwardness of the season ; the poorest 
ground and the latest sowing requiring the most seed. In 
England, the common quantity of seed is from eight to six- 
teen pecks. Our climate being much warmer than that of 
Great Britain, barley and other grains till better with us, 
and consequently we require less seed. We uniformly sow 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 143 

broad-cast, generally on the fresh furrow, and harrow in 
both ways ; and those who have a roller use it in the finish- 
ing- operation. It gives a smooth surface, breaks down the 
lumps, brings the earth in contact with the seed, and if grass 
seeds have been sown, its use is doubly beneficial. I steep 
my seeds twenty-four hours in a weak solution of nitre, the 
crude kind of which costs me only eight cents per pound 
by the quantity. From the analysis and observations of 
Grisenthwaite, there is reason tj believe that this salt is 
peculiarly beneficial to the barley crop, the grain yielding it 
on analysis. I have made no comparative experiments, but 
I think this step serviceable. I have applied to this grain, 
as a top-dcessing, with singular success, the powdered dung 
of pigeons and dunghill fowls, at the rate of twenty to thirty 
buFhels the acre. 

' The crop admits of no after-culture when sown broad- 
cast. Yet the application of the roller, when the plants are 
two or three inches high, is no doubt salutary, especially if 
there have been no considerable rains. Rolling gives a salu- 
tary compression to the soil, which in the spring is apt to 
be loose and porous, and full of cracks, by the alternation 
of freezing and thawing, or of wet and dry weather ; it de- 
stroys many insects ; and, above all, it partial'y buries the 
crowns of the plants, and introduces a multiplication of seed 
stalks. I can recommend the practice from experience. 
When grass seeds are sown with barley, the luxuriance of 
the young grass sometimes chokes the grain, robs it of 
nutriment, and sensibly diminishes the product. To obviate 
this evil it has been recommended to sow the grass seeds 
after the barley has come up, and to cover them with a light 
harrow and a roller ; and it is said, and I think with truth, 
that this operation will not materially injure the grain. In 
dry seasons, the crop is sometimes attacked by worms, 
while young. In this case the roller should be applied and 
sufficient weight added to require the draught of two or 
three cattle. 

' Time and Method of Harvesting. When the soil is rich 
and the season propitious, this grain is very liable to lodge. 
If this happens after it has blossomed, no material injury is 
sustained in the product ; if before, the crop is greatly di- 
minished. This shows the danger to be apprehended from 
making the soil too rich, and of applying fresh manure. 
Barley is known to be ripe by the disappearance of the red- 
dish cast on the ear, or what the English farmers term red 



144 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

roan ; hy the ears begi.ming to droop, and bend themselves 
round against the stems ; and by the stalks becoming brittle, 
and of a yellowish color. This is the particular period for 
cutting, as, if suffered to stand longer, the heads break off, 
and the griiin wastes with the slightest touch. And it may 
be cut V itl the cradle, sickle, or scythe, according to cir- 
cumstances. If it stands straight, and is not too heavy, the 
cradle is to be preferred ; if heavy, or lodged, the sickle or 
scythe. But as the grain 's yet soft, and the straw contains 
much moisture when it ought to be cut, it should be suffer- 
ed to become well dried in the swath before it is bound in 
sheaves, or carried to the barn or stack. If cut with the 
cradle or sickle, it is bound in sheaves ; but the more com- 
mon practice is to cut the crop with the scythe, rake the 
ground, and load it with the barley fork. 

' Barley improves for malting by lying till October before 
it is threshed ; though it is often threshed immediately from 
the field. The great difficulty in preparing it for market is 
to rid it of the awns. This may be done with flails, after it 
has passed once through the fanning mill ; and, where it is 
in great quantities, it may be spread from four to six inches 
upon tho barn floor, and trodden with horses. 

' Produce and Profits. The average product in England 
is stated by Donaldson at thirty-two bushels per acre. The 
product in New York varies from fifteen to seventy bushels, 
according to season and soil ; ard I think the average is 
somewhat short of that of Great Britain. Compared with 
wheat, its product is as two or two and a half to one ; com- 
pared with oats, about equal, provided the soil is adapted to 
this grain. It is, however, to be remembered, that neither 
wheat nor oats are adapted to a barley soil ; the first re- 
quiring a more stiff and tenacious and the latter a more cold 
and moist location. The average price of barley is at least 
two-thiros that of wheat. Supposing wheat, then, to be one 
dollar and twelve cents the bushel, and the product fifteen 
bushels per acre, and barley to be seventy-five cents, and 
the product of an acre thirty bushels, and the expense of cul- 
tivation equal, the profits of the barley will be nearly as three 
to two compared to wheat. Barley, besides, is a less preca- 
rious crop, is subject to fewer diseases, and has fewer insect 
enemies to encounter than wheat.' 

A correspondent of the Bath Agricultural society writes, 
' The last spring being remarkably dry, I soaked my seed 
barley in tho black water taken from a reservoir, v/hich 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 145 

constantly receives the draining of my dung heap and stables. 
As the light grains floated on the top, I skimmed them oflT, 
and let the rest stand twenty-four hours. On taking it from 
the water, I mixed the grain with a sutficient quantity of 
sifted wood ashes, to make it spread regularly, and sowed 
three fields with it. The produce was sixty bushels per 
acre. I sowed some other fields with the same seed dry, 
but the crop, like those of my neighbors, was very poor, not 
more than twenty bushels per acre, and mixed with green 
corn and weeds when harvested. I also sowed some of my 
seed dry on one ridge in each of my fields, but the produce 
was very poor, in comparison of the other parts of the field.' 



MILLET. {Panicum miliaceiun.) The stalks and leaves 
of this plant resemble those of Indian corn, though much 
smal'jr. It grows to the height of three or four feet. A 
sandy soil suits it best. It bears drought admirably well. 
It is said to produce as large a quantity of grain as Indian 
corn, when cultivated in drills three feet apart and six inches 
in the rows ; but owing to the difficulty in saving the crop 
on account of birds, of its ripening unequally, and its shelling 
out, it is generally thought best to sow it broad-cast, and 
cut it when in milk for fodder. 

Mr. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, sowed one peck to the acre 
in May, and put in four acres ; cut it the middle of August, 
and dried it in the sun two or three days. He had seventy- 
five bushels of seed to the acre, and six tons of fodder or*, four 
acres. His cattle relished it very well. 

It is stated in the Floiigli Boy, that millet sowed in June 
on good ground will give from two to four tons of fodder, a^d 
from twenty to thirty bushels of seed, equal to corn for fat- 
tening hogs. It is cultivated in Pennsylvania and Marjdand 
as a fodder crop, and cut in the milk. It is preferred in win- 
ter by neat cattle to clover. 

The American Fanner gives the following very flattering 
account of this grain. Millet sown from the first of May to 
the 20th of June has invariably furnished more fodder than 
could have been obtained from grass under similar circum- 
stances. On the 5th of May, five bushels were sown on fi-ur 
acres ; on the -Sth of July it was harvested, and estimated at 
four tons per acre. It requires in all cases fine tilth, f.nd 
as much strength of soil as is necessary to produce heavy o;.ts. 
13 



146 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

A crop of fodder can be produced if sowed as late as the 
last of July, 

Mr. N. Davenport, of Milton, Massachusetts, gives the fol- 
lowing account of growing a crop of millet : 

' From the 10th to the 23d of June, I sowed about twelve 
acres of millet, at about sixteen quarts per acre. About one- 
third was on land planted the year before, and I think pro- 
duced nearly three tons per acre ; the other two-thirds was 
on green sward, ploughed and harrowed but a few days be- 
fore being sown ; and on very light land, without any ma- 
nure on either. I had not much over one ton per acre on 
the green sward, the land being so light that it did not bear 
more than two or three hundred of hay per acre. I mowed 
my millet from the 1st to the 12th of September ; and I 
found the tops of heads perfectly ripe and fit for seed. 

' I think millet well worth the attention of farmers in 
general for horned cattle. I believe all horned cattle prefer 
it to any other fodder. But I think hay for horses is better 
than millet.' 

John Hare Powel, Esq., of Pennsylvania, has given us the 
following observations on the culture of this crop. 

I have made many experiments on various soils, and at 
different seasons, to ascertain the product as well as the pro- 
perties of millet. Upon light land, in good condition, it suc- 
ceeds best. It requires in all cases fine tilth, and as much 
strength of soil as is necessary to produce heavy oats. I 
have not seen, either in Europe or America, any green crop 
which so largely rewards accurate tillage and plentiful sup- 
plies of manure, as the species of millet usually grown in this 
and the adjacent counties. I have sown it from the first of 
May to the 20th of June, and have invariably obtained 
more fodder than could have been had from any grass under 
similar circumstances. In the autumn, eighty bushels of 
caustic lime per acre were strewed upon an old sward, which 
was immediately ploughed, closely harrowed, sown with rye, 
and rolled. The rye was depastured in the winter and suc- 
ceeding spring. Early in April the land was ploughed again ; 
the lime and decomposed vegetable matter was thus returned 
to the surface. About three weeks after, it was harrowed, to 
destroy weeds ; early in May it was again harrowed for the 
same purpose ; within a fortnight it was stirred with Beat- 
son's scarifier to the depth of nine inches, harrowed, sown 
with millet, and rolled. The crop was fairly estimated at 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 1^ 

three tons per acre. After the millet was cut, the field was 
stirred, and repeatedly harrowed, to destroy the after arowth 
of noxious plants. 1 intend to again sow rye, not only to 
obtain pasturage, but to protect the soil from the exhalations 
of the sun. In the succeeding spring, a slight dressing of 
fresh manure was ploughed under ; the scarifier, roller, and 
harrow were used at intervals as before. On the 5th of May, 
five bushels of millet seeds were sown on four acres ; on the 
5th of July the crop was hauled, and estimated at four tons 
per acre. I have obtained this season forty tons froin six- 
teen acres, of which four only had been manured ; the re- 
mainder could not have borne a good wheat crop. One of 
the load* was weighed ; an account of them was regularly 
kept; their size was made as nearly equal as possible. I 
have generally used a large quantity of seed, as not more 
than two-thirds of that which is usually sown will vegetate. 
Whilst my oxen consumed millet in its green state, they 
performed their work with more spirit and vigor than they 
had done before, or have shown since, except when fed with 
grain. My cattle, of all ages, prefer it to both red and the 
best white clover, meadow, or timothy hay. 

I am not disposed to cultivate it as a farinaceous crop, 
f ''^ne I have found great difhculty in protecting it from the 
ravages of immense flocks of birds, which it attracts, and in 
securing it sufficiently early to prevent a large part of the 
grain from being left on the ground. The seeds on the up- 
per parts of the stalks generally ripen and fall before those 
below have been filled. I therefore invariably cut it when 
the upper parts of most of the heads contain seeds which 
are hard. All my observations have confirmed me in the 
belief, that in this stage it affords fodder more nutritious, 
and more easily made, than any sort of hay. The expense 
of tilling the land, in the accurate manner which I have de- 
tailed, is not so great as at first view would appear. A yoke 
of good oxen can scarify three acres and a half, without 
difficulty, in one day. I Avould recommend millet, not merely 
for its value as a food, but for the means it affords of making 
clean the land, without summer fallows, or drill crops. The 
ingenious arguments which have been adduced to prove that 
deep stirring between growing crops is advantageous to them 
and the soil, are founded upon English experience, properly 
directed by close attention to the effects of a moist climate. 
Some of our writers have profoundly asserted, that as ' dew 



148 THE COBIPLETE FARMER 

drops' are found on the under leaves of plants after deep stir- 
ring has been given in a time of great drought, the practice is 
sound. I should suggest, if I were allowed, that moisture 
had better be at such times conveyed to the roots, than be 
exhaled by the sun, or placed on the leaves until his rays 
shall have exhausted it all. The valuable parts of most ma- 
nures readily assume the gaseous form ; ev3ry deep stirring, 
to a certain extent, in hot weather, therefore, impoverishes 
the soil. Deep ploughing, at proper seasons, is, I conceive, 
the basis of all good farming. Such crops as shall enable the 
husbandman to extirpate weeds, and obtain large supplies of 
fodder, without much exhaustion, should be the great objects 
for his aim. I would propose that a foi:.l sward receive its 
proper quantity of quicklime, which should be spread and 
ploughed under, in its caustic state, in the early part of Sep- 
tember ; that the field be harrowed sufficiently ; sown with 
rye at the rate of two bushels per acre, as early as possible ; 
that it be depastured late in the autumn and early in the 
spring; that in May it be again ploughed, three inches deeper 
than before; that it be harrowed, and left until the small 
weeds begin to appear. Early in June millet should be sown; 
in August the crop can be removed, after the labors of the 
general harvest. The field should be slightly stir/ed with 
the scarifier, occasionally harrowed, and left throughout 
September, for the destruction of weeds, as befo/e. In Octo- 
ber it may be manured, and sown with wheat, or left for a 
crop of Indian corn. 



BUCKWHEAT. {Polygonum.) In light lands this crop 
may be raised to advantage. In this climate it should not 
be sown till after the middle of May. One bushel is seed 
enough for an acre, if sown broad-cast, as is usual ; but if 
sown in drills, less than half that quantity is sufficient. In 
the state of New York, farmers sow it in August with win- 
ter wheat. It affords them a ripe crop in the fall, without 
injuring the crop of wheat, which grows with and succeeds it. 

Buckwheat is harvested by mowing, in the manner of 
barley. After it is mown it should be several days before it 
is housed. It is in no danger of the seeds falling, nor does 
it suffer much by wet. From its great succulency it is lia- 
ble to heat in a mow, on which account it is better to put it 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 149 

into small stacks of five or six loads each, than either a large 
one, or in a barn. 

Mr. Loudon observes, ' that the use of the grain of buck- 
wheat in Great Britain is almost entirely for feeding poultry, 
pigeons, and swine. It may also be given to horses, which 
are said to thrive well upon it ; but the author of the New 
Farnier''s Calendar says he thinks he has seen it produce a 
stupefying effect. Young says that 'a bushel of buckwheat 
goes farther than two bushels of oats, and mixed with at 
least four times as much bran, will be found sufficient for a 
horse a week. Eight bushels of buckwheat meal will go as 
far as twelve bushels of barley meal.' 

The meal of buckwheat is made into thin cakes, called 
crumpets, in Italy, and in some parts of England. Buck- 
wheat pancakes are likewise common, and thought to be 
wholesome as well as palatable, in many parts of the United 
States. Buckwheat blossoms afford rich food for bees, and 
are useful as well from the quantity of honey which they 
enable the bees to make, as the long time they continue with- 
out fading or ceasing to be fragrant. On this account the 
buckwhe-it plant is highly prized in France and Germany ; 
and Du Hamel advises bee-keepers to carry their hives to 
fields of this crop in autumn, as well as to heath lands. 

The Fanner^s Assistant says, ' We cannot recommend the 
culture of buckwheat on lands which are suitable for more 
valuable crops; but on light smooth lands, particularly, the 
farmer may find his account in keeping a field of a few acres 
for a yearly crop of buckwheat, as well for family use as for 
assisting in fattening his swine, &;c. A bushel of gypsum to 
the acre, or perhaps less, applied yearly to the ground, would 
be found to keep it rich enough for good crops.' 



RICE. {Oriza Sativa.) This is a genus of plants, con- 
sisting of several species, which, however, may be divided 
into two varieties, viz. mountain rice, which grows in dry 
elevated soils, and marsh rice, sown in low swampy districts. 
The former kind was raised by Mr. Bordley on dry sandy 
land, near Annapolis, in Maryland. It is perhaps possible 
that this plant may be gradually introduced into the north- 
ern states, and made to grow in dry and elevated ground. 
This is much to be desired, as rice is the cheapest nutriment 
13# 



150 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

known, containing, it is said, ninety-six parts in a hundred 
of nutritive matter. 

Tke Farmer''s Assistant gives the following directions for 
the culture of this plant: ' Early in the spring, the ground is 
to be fitted with the plough for trie reception of the seed, 
which is to be drilled in, in rows, at the distance of about 
twenty-seven inches apart. When the young plants have 
acquired a suitable height, the weeds are to be eradicated 
from the crop with the plough, or with a small harrow to be 
guided by handles behind, run twice between the rows, and 
the work is then completed by the hoe, and perhaps some 
hand weeding. 

' In due season after this the water is to be occasionally let 
on the ground, for the purpose of killing the weeds and grass ; 
and then to be let off again, in order that the crop may have 
such farther ploughing and hoeing as may be found necessa- 
ry. If water is not used, the growing crop is to be kept 
clear of weeds, like other hoed crops, till the ground becomes 
sufficiently shaded to prevent farther trouble from them. 

' The grain will be found sufficiently ripened while the 
stalks are still green ; and on this account they are valuable 
as a substitute for hay. If the crop be flooded, the water is 
to be let off in due season, so that the ground can be laid 
sufficiently dry before harvesting. With regard to this ope- 
ration, we will merely observe, that he who understands the 
manner of harvesting wheat, rye, barley, or oats, need be at 
no loss as to the best method of gathering this crop ; remem- 
bering, however, that the straw should be sufficiently dried 
before threshing or stowing the crop away.' 



HOPS. The following was written by William Blan- 
chard, Jun. Esq., and first published in the New England 
Farmer, vol. ii. p. 52. 

* The hop is a native plant. It is found growing sponta- 
neously on the banks and intervals of many of our large 
rivers. There are several distinct species, all bearing a near 
affinity to each other; (I have noticed five.) At present 
they are cultivated together, promiscuously ; no preference 
having been given to any particular one of them by the 
brewer. But I am of the opinion that there is an essential 
difference in their qualities; that one may be the best for pale 
ale, another for strong beer, and a third for porter ; and I 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 151 

presume, ere long, particular attention will be paid to ascer- 
tain their different qualities. 

' The soil best calculated for the production of hops I 
consider to be a sandy loam, rather low and moist. I am 
led to this conclusion partly from my own observation, and 
farther (considering nature an infallible instructer) from 
finding the lands which produce them naturally (intervals 
and the banks of large rivers) to be of this kind. Yet, I 
must observe, I have seen very fine crops raised on very dif- 
ferent soils. 

' I should recommend the following mode of preparing 
the land and managing the crop. In the fall (October) 
plough the land deep, nine or ten inches. In the spring fol- 
lowmg, pass a heavy, sharp iron-toothed harrow over the 
land in the same direction it was ploughed ; after which, 
spread your manure evenly over the same, sixteen cords per 
acre, and more if the land be much reduced ; then cross- 
plough the land nearly the same depth, and furrow it as for 
planting corn, the furrows to be at least four feet apart. 

' It is customary to plant corn or potatoes with the hops ; 
(I should prefer potatoes.) Plant every other hill in every 
other low with hops, thus placing the hep hills at least eight 
feet apart. Put four cuttings from the running roots, about 
eight inches in length, into each hill, and cover them the 
common depth of potatoes. 

* Many yards have been much injured by being planted too 
closely. It is of great importance to have the hills so far 
distant from each other as to admit a free current of air to 
pass through the yard. 

' All the attention requisite the first season after the hops 
are planted, is to keep them clean from weeds, which is easi- 
ly done when hoeing the crop planned amongst them. In 
the fall, (October,) to prevent their being injured by the hard 
frosts of winter, carry on and lay out of your cart one 
shovelful of compost manure on the top of each hill ; ma- 
nure from the hogsty I should prefer. 

* In each following spring, before the hops are opened, as 
it is termed, sprjad evenly over the yard about eight cords 
of manure per acre, (coarse, strawy manure I should pre- 
fer, as it will have a tendency to keep the land loose,) 
and plough the field both ways at the first hoeing. They 
require but three hoeings in a season, unless necessary to 
subdue the weeds ; the last of which should be performed 



152 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

when the hops are in full blossom, (about the beginning of 
August.) 

' After the first crop, it is necessary to open the hops, 
every spring, by the middle of May ; which is performed by 
making four furrows between the rows, turning the furrows 
from the hills, and running th'3 plough as near to the same 
as possible without injuring the main roots. Then the earth 
is removed from the roots with a hoe, all the running roots 
cut in, with a sharp knife, within two inches of the main roots ; 
the tops of the main roots must also be cut in, and then 
the hills covered with earth about two inches deep. 

' The next thing necessary to be done is to set the poles. 
This should be done as soon as the hop-vines begin to make 
their appearance. By so doing, much time and labor will 
be saved in tying up the vines to the poles, as many of the 
vines will naturally take to the poles. There should not be 
to exceed two vines to one pole, nor to exceed two poles to 
one hill, nor any pole to exceed sixteen feet in height. 
Many yards have been very much injured by letting a greater 
number of vines gro\v' on one pole, and almost destroyed by 
over-poling. 

' Very much depends on paying due attention, in the 
spring, to select the most thrifty vines, and training them to 
the poles, which is done by fastening them to the poles with 
a piece of yarn, slightly twisted together with the thumb and 
finger. 

' It will be necessary to inspect your hop-yard frequently, 
until the hops begin to blossom, and " tie up the vines," as 
it is termed, as they are subject to be blown off the poles by 
every high wind. 

' As soon as the hops are ripe, which is about the begin- 
ning of September, they must be immediately gathered, or 
the crop is lost. The quality of the hops depends consi- 
derably on their being picked clean from leaves and stems. 
The labor of picking or gathering the hops may be well per- 
formed by women and children, having one man to a bin to 
handle the poles and to inspect the pickers. The bin is a 
wooden box, about nine feet long, three feet wide, and two 
and a half feet high, made of thin pine boards, that it may 
be easily moved over the yard, across which the poles are 
laid, and into which the hops are picked by hand. Care 
should be taken, when gathering the hops, to cut the vines 
two feet from the ground, that the roots may not be injured 
by bleeding. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 158 

' The most important part in the management cf hops is 
the curing or drying of them. Here I would note that 
hops always grow first sort, and that all second sort and 
refuse hops are made so by unfortunate or unskilful ma- 
nagement. 

' Much depends on having a well constructed kiln. For 
the convenience of putting the hops on the kiln, the side of 
a hill is generally chosen for its situation. Care should be 
taken that it be a dry situation. The kiln should be dugout 
the same bigness at the bottom as at the top ; the side walls 
laid up perpendicularly, and filled in solid with stone, to give 
it a tunnel form. Twelve feet square at the top, two feet 
square at. the bottom, and at least eight feet deep, is deemed 
a convenient size. On the top of the w^alls sills are laid, 
having joists let into them in like manner as for laying a 
floor; on which laths, about one and a half inches wide, are 
nailed, leaving open spaces between them three-fourths 
of an inch, over which a thin linen cloth is spread and nailed 
at the edges to the sills. A board about twelve inches wide 
is set up on each side of the kiln, on the inner edge of the 
sill, to form a bin to receive the hops. The larger the stones 
made use of in the construction of the kiln, the better ; as 
it will give a more steady and dense heat. The inside of 
the kiln should be well plastered with mortar, to make it 
completely air tight. Charcoal (that made from yellow birch 
or maple I should prefer) is the only fuel proper to be used 
in drying hops. The kiln should be well heated before any 
hops are put on, and carefully attended to keep a steady and 
regular heat. 

' Fifty pounds of hops, when dried, is the largest quantity 
that should be dried at one time, on a kiln of this size ; and 
unless absolutely necessary to put on that quantity, a less 
would dry better. The green hops should be spread as even- 
ly and as light as possible over the kiln. The fire at first 
should be moderate, but it may be increased as the hops dry 
and the steam is evaporated. 

' Hops should not remain long in the bin or bag after they 
are picked, as they will very soon heat and become insipid. 
The hops should nol be stirred on the kiln until they are 
completely and fully dried. Then they should be removed 
from the kiln into a dry room and laid in a heap, and there 
remain, unmoved and unstirred, until bagged, which is done 
with a screw, having a box made of plank, the size the bag 
is wished, into which the cloth is laid, and the hops screwed 



154 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

into the box, which is so constructed that the sides may be 
removed, and the bag sewed together while in the press. 

' The hops, after laying a few days, will gather a partial 
moisture, called a sweat. The sweat will probably begin to 
subside in about eight days, at which time, and before the 
sweat is off, they ought to be bagged in clear dry weather. 
As the exact time when the hops will begin to sweat, and 
when the sweat will begin to subside or dry off, (the proper 
time to bag them,) will vary with the state of the atmos- 
phere, it will be necessary to examine the hops from day to 
day, which is easily done by taking some of them from the 
centre of the heap wnth your hand. If on examination you 
find the hops to be very damp, and their color altering, which 
will be the case if they were not completely dried on the 
kiln, and not otherwise, you must overhaul them and dry 
them in the air. 

' The most convenient size for a bag of hops to handle 
and transport, is about five feet in length, and to contain 
about two hundred and fifty pounds. The best bagging is 
coarse strong tow cloth of our domestic manufacturing ; next 
to that, Russia hemp bagging. The East India sugar and 
gunny bags, so called, ought never to be used. The sugar 
bags are of an unreasonable weight, and both they and the 
gunny bags are of no value to the brewer ; whereas the 
other bags are worth prime cost. 

' It is now common for those who have entered considera- 
bly into the cultivation of hops, to build houses over iheir 
kilns, which, in wet weather, are very convenient ; other- 
wise, a kiln in the open air would, in my opinion, be prefer- 
able. It is necessary to have these buildings well ventilated 
with doors and windows ; and to have them kept onen night 
and day, except in wet weather, and then shut those only 
which are necessary to keep out the rain. If a ventilator 
was put in the roof of the building, directly over the centre 
of the kiln, about six feet square, built like those in brew- 
eries and distilleries, I am of the opinion they would be 
found very advantageous. I have seen many lots of hops 
much injured both in color and flavor by being dried in close 
buildingfs. 

' Where the houses over the kilns are built large, for the 
purpose of storing the hops as they are dried, which is a 
great saving of labor, a close partition should be made be- 
tween the kilns and the room in which the hops are stored, 
to prevent the damp steam from the kilns coming to them, as 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 155 

it will color them, and injure their flavor and quality very 
much. 

' I expect that many of our farmers will object to the mode 
of manuring hops which I have recommended, their common 
practice being to put the manure in the hills when they 
plant the hops, and afterwards to apply the manure on the 
hills at the first and second hoeings. I fiTid u.e hop-roots 
are very liable to be injured by the worms, and to decay. 
My opinion is, that the manure in the hill has a tendency to 
produce the worms, and its fermentation at their roots to 
cause their decay ; and that the crop is not more, if as abun- 
dant, as when manured in the manner I have recommended : 
and, farther, that a hop-yard manured in this manner will 
continue in a healthy state for many years. 

' I also expect the quantity of manure I have recommend- 
ed will be objected to by many, it being the common re- 
ceived opinion, that hops should have little or no manure. 
I find it a general complaint amongst the farmers where hops 
have been cultivated many year'=;, that the quantity raised 
per acre does not exceed the one-half raised by their ances- 
tors on the same land ; inferring that the " hops are running 
out," as it is termed, and cannot now be cultivated to ad- 
vantage. Hops, I believe, in common with all sorts cf grain, 
and vegetables, flourish best and produce the finest crops 
when cultivated on new lands, which require little or no ma- 
nure ; and such were the lands which their ancestors cul- 
tivated. The same complaint I presume would be made 
against all sorts of grain and vegetables, if raised with little 
or no manure, on lands that have long been cultivated. 

' From my own observations, I am confident that no crop 
can be more improved and increased by high cultivation 
than hops.' 



PEA. {Pisum sativum.) The pea is a hardy annual, a 
native of the south of Europe, cultivated in Great Britain 
from time immemorial, and in this country from its first set- 
tlement. 

Times of Soioing. ' The dwarfs are generally employed 
in hotbed culture, which, however, succeeds badly, and is 
neither worth preserving nor describing, and the less so as 
early crops may be more certainly had by sowing in the fall, 
in sheltered situations, and covering during the winter with 



156 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

a layer of leaves, and another of long stable-litter, loosely 
applied, to keep the leaves in their places. After the earth 
takes a temperature favorable to vegetation, your pea sow- 
ings should be made once a fortnight, to keep up a regular 
and successive supply.' — Armstrong. 

Quantity of Seed. ' Of the small, early kinds, one pint 
will sow a row of twenty yards ; for the larger sorts, for 
main crops, the same measure will sow a row of thirty-three 
yards.' 

Process in Solving. ' For early sorts, make the dr'Us one 
inch and a half deep ; and let parallel drills be two feet and 
a half, three, or four feet asunder. Peas that are to grow 
without sticks require the least room. For summer crops 
and large sorts, make the drills two inches deep, and four, 
five, or six feet asunder. As to the distances along the drill, 
distribute the peas according to their size and the season : 
the frame, three in the space of an inch ; the Charltons, 
Hotspur, and dwarf marrowfat, two in an inch ; the Prus- 
sian blue and middle-sized sorts, three in two inches ; the 
large marrowfat and Knight's, a full inch apart ; the moratto, 
rouncivais, and most larger sorts, an inch and a half apart ; 
and the Patagonian, two inches.' 

Soil and Situation. ' The soil should be moderately rich, 
and the deeper and stronger for the lofty growers. Peas 
are not assisted, but hurt, by unreduced dung recently turned 
in. A fresh, sandy loam, or road-stuff, and a little decom- 
posed vegetable matter, is the best manure. The soil for the 
early crops should be very dry, and rendered so, where the 
ground is moist, by mixing sand with the earth of the drills.' 
— Loudon. 

Armstrong says, ' A loose and warm soil is most favora- 
ble to this vegetable, which, by the way, is neither improved 
in quality nor quantity by stable manure. The soil of 
Clichy, and of Point de Jour des Colombe, &c., in the neigh- 
borhood of Paris, is a pure sand, principally devoted to pea 
crops, and yielding these most abundantly without the ap- 
plication of dung new or old.' 

Subsequent Culture. ' As the plants rise from half an inch 
high to two or three inches, begin to draw earth to the 
stems, doing this when the ground is in a dry state, and 
earthing gradually higher as the stems ascend. At the same 
time, with the hoe, loosen the ground between the young 
plants, and cut down rising weeds. Early crops should be 
protected during hard frosts by dry straw or other light lit- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 157 

ter, laid upon sticks or brushwood ; but remove the cover- 
ing as soon as the weather turns mild. If, in April, May, 
and the course of the summer, dry weather occurs, waterinor 
will be necessary, especially to plants in blossom and swell- 
ing the fruit ; and this trouble will be repaid in the produce. 
Rows partly cut off may be made up by transplanting. In 
dry weather, water, and in hot weather, shade, until the 
plants strike. All peas fruit better for sticking, and continue 
longer productive, especially the larger sorts. Stick the 
plants when from six to twelve inches high, as soon as they 
begin to vine. Provide branchy sticks of such a height as 
the sort will require ; for the frame and Leadmans dwarf, 
three feet high ; for the Charlton and middle-sized, four or 
five feet ; for the marrowfat and larger kinds, six or eight 
feet ; for the rouncival, and for Knight's marrow-pea, nine or 
ten feet. Place a row of sticks to each line of peas, on the 
most sunny side, east or south, that the attraction of the sun 
may incline the plants towards the sticks. Place about 
half the number on the opposite side, and let both rows 
stand rather wider at top than at the ground. Some garden- 
ers stop the leading shoot of the most early crop when in 
blossom ; a device which accelerates the setting and maturity 
of the fruit. 

To forward an early Crop. ' Soav or plant in lines from 
east to west, and stick a row of spruce-fir [or other evergreen] 
branches along the north side of every row, and sloping so 
as to bend over the plants, at one foot or eighteen inches 
from the ground. As the plants advance in height, vary the 
position of the branches, so as they may always protect 
them from perpendicular cold or rain, and yet leave them 
open to the full influence of the spring sun. Some cover 
during nights and in severe weather with two boards, nailed 
together lengthwise, at right angles, which forms a very se- 
cure and easily-managed covering, but excludes light. A 
better plan would be to glaze one of the sides, to be kept to 
the south, and to manage such row-glasses, as they might be 
called, when over peas, beans, spinage, &;c., as hand-glasses 
are managed when over cauliflower ; that is, to take them 
off in fine weather, or raise them constantly or occasionally 
"by brickbats, or other props, as the weather and the state of 
the crop might require.' — Loudon. 

Management of a late Crop. The best variety for this 
purpose is Knight's marrow-pea, which may be sown at in- 
tervals of ten days from the beginning to the end of June. 
14 



158 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

' The ground is dug- over in the usual way, and the spaces 
to 'be occupied by the future rows of peas are well soaked 
with water. The mould upon each side is then collected so 
as to form ridges seven or eight inches above the previous 
level of the ground, and these ridges are well watered. The 
seeds are now sown in single rows, along the tops of the 
ridges. The plants grow vigorously, owing to the depth of 
soil and abundant moisture. If dry weather at any time set 
in, water is applied profusely once a week. In this way, 
the plants continue green and vigorous, resisting mildew, 
and yielding fruit till subdued by frost.' — Hort. Trans, vol. ii. 

To save Seed. ' Like other vegetables, the pea is sus- 
ceptible of considerable improvement, and by the simple 
means of marking the finest plants of each variety, and keep- 
ing them for seed. Wilson's frame and the Knight pea 
have been formed in this way, and afford sufficient proof of 
the wonders produced by a very small degree of observation 
and care.' — Armstrong. 

Field-culture of the Pea. The most common mode of 
sowing peas is broad-cast ; but the advantages of the row 
culture, in a crop so early committed to the ground, must 
be obvious. Loudon says, ' In Kent, where immense quanti- 
ties of peas are raised, both for gathering green and for 
selling ripe to the seedsmen, they are generally sown in 
rows from eighteen inches to three feet asunder, according to 
the kind, and well cultivated between. Peas laid a foot 
below the surface will vegetate ; but the most approved 
depth is six inches in light soil, and four inches in clay soil ; 
for which reason they ought to be sown under furrow when 
the ploughing is delayed till spring. Of all grain, beans ex- 
cepted, they are in the least danger of being buried too deep.' 
— Loudon. 

Deane observed, that 'for field peas, land that is newly 
ploughed out of sward is generally accounted best ; and 
land which is high and dry, and has not been much dunged. 
A light, loamy soil is most sui^^able for them ; and if it 
abound with slaty stones, it is the better. But they will do 
in any dry soil. The manures that suit peas best are marl 
and lime. Our farmers do not commonly allow a sufficient 
quantity of seed for peas, in broad-cast sowing. When peas 
are sowed thin, the plants will lie on the ground, and per- 
haps rot ; when they are thick, the plants will hold each 
other up with their tendrils, forming a continued web, and 
will have more benefit of the air.' 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 159 

Insects and Diseases. The Massachusetts Agricultural Re- 
pository, for June, 1822, contains some remarks of the Hon. 
T, Pickering, relative to a bug or fly, [bruckus pisi,) which 
preys on the pea, in which he observes, that an effectual 
remedy for this evil is late sowing ; but the hot sun of June 
"vvill so pinch the vines of the late sown peas, that the crop 
will be small, unless the land be moist as well as rich. He 
then details some experiments, by which he concludes that 
this insect is limited to a certain period for depositing its 
eggs ; and if the tender pods are not found till that period 
has passed, the peas will be free from bugs. Colonel Wor- 
thington, of Rensellaer county, New York, ' sowed his peas 
on the 10th of June, six years in succession, and a bug has 
never been seen in his peas ; whereas his neighbors, who 
have not adopted this practice, have scarcely a pea without 
a bus: in it. He supposes the season for depositing the egg 
of the pea-bug is passed before the peas are in flower ' — 
Memoirs of New York Board of Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 23. 
' The only insect that commonly injures our peas is a small 
brown bug or fly, the egg [or larva] of which is deposited in 
them when they are young, and the pods easilj'^ perforated. 
The insect does not come out of its nest till he is furnished 
with short wings. They diminish the peas in which they 
lodge nearly one-half, and their leavings are fit only for the 
food of swine. The bugs, however, will be all gone out if 
you keep them to the following autumn. But they who eat 
buggy peas the winter after they are raised, must run the 
venture of eating the insects." — Deane's Neio England Far- 
mer. 

The same writer recommends, when seed peas are known 
or suspected to contain insects, to scald them a quarter of a 
minute in boiling water, spread them about, and sow them 
without delay. If any of the bugs should be in the peas, this 
scalding will destroy them ; and the peas, instead of being 
hurt, will come up the sooner, and grow the faster. 

Mildew is another evil attending peas, especially such as 
are sown late in the season. This disorder is supposed by 
Knight to be caused by ' a want of a sufficient supply of 
moisture from the soil, with excess of humidity in the air, 
particularly if the plants be exposed to a temperature below 
that to which they have been accustomed.' The remedy 
which he recommends is, to ' give water rather profusely 
once a week, or nine days, even if the weather proves show- 
ery.' — See Neio England Farmer, vol. i. p. 414. 



160 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

Use. The use of peas for soups and other culinary pur- 
poses is well known. They are likewise very serviceable in 
fattening hogs, for which purpose they should be harvested 
dry, and ground into meal. If the straw be forward in au- 
tumn, and has been harvested without injury, it will be little 
inferior to ordinary hay for feeding cattle. 

' In boiling split peas, some samples, without reference to 
variety, fall or moulder down freely into pulp, while others 
continue to maintain their form. The former are called 
boilers. This property of boiling depends on the soil : stiff 
land, or sandy land that has been limed or marled, uniformly 
■produces peas that will not melt in boiling, no matter what 
the variety may be.' — Loudon. 

' When peas are sown before winter, or early in spring, 
they are very apt to be eaten by mice. To prevent this, 
soak the peas for a day or two in train oil before you sow 
them, which will encourage their vegetation, and render them 
so obnoxious to the mice that they will not eat them;' — 
Domestic Encyclopedia. 



BEANS. Loudon gives the following directions for the 
culture of runners, or pole-beans, as they are commonly call- 
ed in this country : — The runner kidney beans may be sown 
in a small portion towards the end of April, [about the mid- 
dle of May in New England,] if tolerably warm, dry wea- 
ther ; but as these beans are rather more tender than tlf& 
dwarf sorts, more liable to rot in the ground by wet and cold, 
especially the scarlets, the beginning or middle of May [first 
of June in New England] will be time enough to sow a 
considerable crop ; and you may sow a full crop about the 
beginning of June. Allot principally the scarlet and large 
white runners. Some Dutch runners are very eligible as a 
secondary crop. The first crops should have the assistance 
of a south wall. Intermediate crops may be sown in any 
open compartment, or against any fence not looking north. 
The latest sown will continue bearing longer under a good 
aspect and shelter. In sowing, draw drills about an inch 
and a half, or not more than two inches deep. Let parallel 
rows be at least four feet asunder, to admit in the intervals 
tall sticks or poles for the plants to climb on. Place the 
beans in the drills four inches apart, and earth them in evenly 
the depth of the drills. A row contiguous to a fence or 



AND RtTRAL ECONOMIST. 161 

building may ascend upon lines. Some may be sown in a 
sinfrle row along a border, or on each side of a walk, and 
have the support of a slight trellis of laths and lines ; or 
they might be arched over with similar materials to form a 
shady walk or bower. In a cold, w^et season, or when re- 
quisite to have a few plants more forward than the general 
crop, some scarlets may be sown in April, either in a slight 
hotbed, or in pots, under frames of hand-glasses, to raise 
and forward the plants, till two or three inches high : then, 
at the end of May, transplant them into the open garden. 
As the plants come up, and advance from three to six inches 
in growth, hoe some earth to the stems, cutting down all 
weeds. When they begin to send forth runners, place suita- 
ble supports to each row ; and conduct the tendrils to the 
sticks or lines, turning them in a contrary direction to the 
sun. The ascending plants will soon come into flower, pod- 
ding at the joints, in long succession. They are so prolific, 
that the returns from three sowings, in May, June and July, 
will last from July till October. 

Taking the Crop. Gather the pods, both from dwarfs and 
runners, while they are young, fleshy, brittle, and tender, for 
then they are in the highest perfection for the table ; and the 
plants will bear more fully, and last longer in fruit, under a 
course of clean gathering, not leaving any superabundant 
pods to grow old. 

To save Seed. Either sow a portion for that object, or 
leave rows wholly ungathered of the main crop, or preserve 
a sufficiency of good pods promiscuously. The beans saved 
should be the first fruits of a crop sown at a period which 
throws the entire course of growth into the finest part of 
summer. Let them hang on the stalks till they ripen fully, 
in August and September; then let the haulm be pulled up 
and placed in the sun, to dry and harden the seed, which 
should be afterwards cleared out of the husks, bagged up, 
and housed. 

The pea, English bean, and kidney bean, are liable to the 
attacks of various insects, especially the aphides, [plant lice,] 
in dry seasons. When early crops are newly sown or plant- 
ed, mice will burrow for and eat the seed, and when it be- 
gins to penetrate the soil, it is attacked by snails, slugs, the 
cut- worm, &c. The usual means of guarding against the 
ravages of insects must, therefore, be resorted to by the gar- 
dener. 

As regards the field culture of the bean, we would observe, 
14# 



162 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

that the white kind, wjbich is most generally approved of in 
New England, will produce pretty good crops on poor, 
sandy, or gravelly soils ; but, when planted on such ground, 
it is good husbandry to wet and roll them in plaster before 
planting. They may be planted in hills or drills, the rows 
two and a half or three feet apart, according to the strength 
of the soil, and cultivated like other hoed crops. They may 
be planted the latter end of May, or beginning of June, or 
about the time of planting Indian corn. If planted in hills, 
they may be placed from fourteen to twenty-four inches apart 
in the rows, and the rows the distance before mentioned. 
Five beans are quite enough to remain in a hill. Hogs' 
dung, mixed with ashes, is said to be the best manure for 
them; and it is said to be very injurious to beans to hoe 
them while the dew is on, or in wet weather. 

Judge Buel, of Albany, has given the following notices 
of some experiments in the field culture of this vegetable : 
' Beans may be cultivated in drills or in hills. They are a 
valuable crop ; and, with good care, are as profitable as a 
wheat crop. They leave the soil in good tilth. The China 
bean, with a red eye, is to be preferred. They ripen early, 
and are very productive. I cultivated beans the last year 
in three different ways, viz. in hills, in drills, and sowed 
broad-cast. I need not describe the first, which is a well- 
known process. I had an acre in drills, which was the best 
crop I ever saw. My management was this : on an acre 
of light ground, where the clover had been frozen out the 
preceding winter, I spread eight loads of long manure, and 
immediately ploughed and harrowed the ground. Drills or 
furrows were then made with a light plough, at the distance 
of two and a half feet, and the beans thrown along the fur- 
rows, about the 25th of May, by the hand, at the rate of at 
least a bushel on the acre. I then gauged a double mould- 
board plough, which was passed once between the rows, and 
was followed by a light one-horse roller, which flattened the 
ridges. The crop was twice cleaned of weeds, by the hoe, 
but not earthed. The product was more than forty-eight 
bushels, by actual measurement. The beans brought me 
one dollar the bushel last fall. The third experiment was 
likewise upon a piece of ground where the clover had been 
killed. It was ploughed about the first of June, the seed 
sown like peas, upon the first furrow, and harrowed in. The 
drought kept them back ; but about sixty-five rods of ground, 
on which the experiment was made, gave a product of twelve 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 163 

and a half bushels. The crop was too ripe when it was har- 
vested, and as it was cut with a scythe, I estimated that about 
two and a half bushels were left upon the ground. No labor 
was bestowed upon them from the time they were sown till 
they were harvested. 



SWINE. Notwithstanding their evil propensities, filthy 
and mischievous habits, and insatiable voracity, swine are 
very profitable animals to a farmer. Indeed, every family 
in which there is any cooking done should keep at least one 
hog, alw£iys confined in a proper pen, in order to consume 
the washing of pots, dishes, refuse food, &c. 

As much depends on the breed of swine as of any domes- 
tic animal, as relates to the profit of keeping. The old- 
fashioned, thin, long-legged, long-nosed, gaunt-bodied hogs 
are now, we believe, hardly tolerated in New England, and 
are becoming as scarce as they are ugly and unprofitable. 
We are but little acquainted with the different breeds of their 
successors, and shall not therefore assume the responsibility 
of recommending any particular race. 0. Fiske, Esq., of 
Worcester, an able, enlightened, and patriotic cultivator, 
says, ' My hogs are of the Bedford breed, so called in Eng- 
land ; and experience has proved to my satisfaction that this 
breed is far the best that has been introduced into our coun- 
try. They are quiet in their nature, fat easy, and with little 
expense or trouble. I have had some weigh at twelve months 
old about three hundred and forty pounds, and a considerable 
number of eighteen months old four hundred pounds.' 

' The marks of a good hog are a moderate length in pro- 
portion to the size of the body ; the nose short ; the cheek 
plump and full ; neck thick and short ; quarters full ; car- 
cass thick and full ; hair fine and thin ; with a symmetry 
adapted to the breed to which it belongs. Above all it is es- 
sential that it be of a kindly disposition to fatten early.' 

The sow should be selected with great care, broad and 
straight-backed ; wide hips ; a great many teats ; short legs, 
and fine bone. It is said that the sow will produce the 
stronger and better litter if not allowed to br jed till a year 
old, and the boar should not be younger than that age when 
put to sows. Sows may be allowed to breed till they are six 
years old, and boars till five ; and both be made good pork 
after this period, by methods which do not require descrip- 



164 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

tion. One male, according to the Complete Grazier, should 
not be permitted to have access to more than ten females in 
a year. Sows will usually have pigs twice a year, and 
should be put to the males at such times as will bring one 
litter in April and another early in September. 

' Those sows are accounted the best breeders,' says the 
Farmer's Assistant, ' which have about ten or twelve paps. 
They should be kept clean and well littered ; but should not 
have too much litter at the time of pigging, lest they over- 
lay their pigs in it. At the end of a Aveek or ten days, they 
should be let out of their sties into the yard for three or 
four hours each day. Where several sows are farrowing 
about the same time, they must be kept in separate apart- 
ments in the sty, lest they devour the pigs of each other. 
Young sows will sometimes eat their own offspring, which 
may be prevented by washing the backs of the pigs in an 
infusion of aloes ; and, for this purpose, the sows must be 
watched. It is said that supplying them with plenty of wa- 
ter at this time will prevent any mischief taking place of 
this kind.' 

Mr. Featherstonhaugh says, ' Farmers differ much in their 
plans of raising holding stock for pork ; some permitting 
their shoats to run at large eighteen months, till they are 
penned up to fatten ; this is the most troublesome and least 
profitable way ; others give them a range in clover pastures, 
and begin to fatten them earlier. I apprehend there is a 
much more profitable way, and attended with less trouble for 
those who have the right breed. According to the quantity 
of pork wanted should be the number of breeding sows kept 
over, and there should be no other hogs on the farm [that is, 
kept over winter] but the breeding sows. These, when they 
pig the latter end of March, should be fed in the most at- 
tentive manner, with swill and shorts. The pigs from a full- 
grown sow will generally be twelve in number; these should 
be thinned down to eight, and as soon as they begin to feed 
freely out of the trough should be weaned, and afterwards 
fed regularly with green tares, clover, boiled potatoes, ground 
peas, unmerchantable corn, or any other nourishing food ; 
turning them out every day into a small yard, where there 
is a shallow pond for them to lie in. A remarkable breed 
of pigs, which had been treated pretty much in this manner, 
were exhibited at Duanesburgh fair ; when eight months old, 
one of them was slaughtered, and weighed exactly three 
hundred and eleven pounds ; they all attracted universal at- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 165 

tention, and I never saw such animals before. This method, 
as it is attended with little trouble, and leaves so small a 
quantity of stock on hand to winter over, appears to me to 
be more economical, in every point of view, than any other 
which is practised."^ In the county of Kensellaer, New 
York, some farmers assert that ' March pigs, killed about 
Christmas, are the most profitable for pork.' Others say, 
* pigs ought never to come until June ; for the cost of earlier 
pigs exceeds the profit.' And, farther, we learn that ' the me- 
thods proposed for fattening hogs by the different farmers in 
that county are very various. General H. Moffit, H. Piatt, Esq., 
colonel Worthington, Messrs. J. Phillips, A. Bush, and some 
others, recommend keeping hogs in pastures, with some slops 
from the dairy, &c., till near the last of August ; some say 
a little later. All agree that near this time they manifest 
a disrelish for grass. Small patches of peas, or even of 
corn, will then be convenient to turn them into for a few 
weeks. About the first of September begin with boiled po- 
tatoes and pumpkins, mashed together, with a little Indian 
meal, ground oats and peas, or other grain, stirred into the 
mixture after it cools. From two to four weeks before kill- 
ing time, the food should be dry Indian corn, nnd clean cold 
water. Mr. Yonghans fattens his hogs in a large yard or 
field, with a shelter in it to which they may retire to sleep. 
But elder Turner says, hogs should never know what liberty 
is, but should be kept close all their lives, and as inactive 
as possible ; that with this method double the quantity of 
pork can be produced with the same expense of feed.'t 

The practice in Scotland is to rear swine chiefly on raw 
potatoes, and to fatten them on these roots boiled or prepar- 
ed by steam, with a mixture of oats, barley, or bean and 
pea-meal. Their troughs should be often replenished with 
a small quantity of food at a time, and kept always clean, 
and seasoned occasionally with salt.t The Farmer's Maga- 
zine says, ' The outside leaves of cabbages, salted and let 
stand a month, and then mixed with buttermilk, will fat a 
hog in three weeks.' Mr. Marshall says, (Midland Counties, 
V. p. 453,) ' Young pigs require loarm meat to make them 
grow. Corn and cold water will make them healthy ; but 
warm beverage is considered as requisite to a quick growth.' 

* Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture, vol. i. p. 332. 
f Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture, vol. ii. pp. 39, 40. 
% Report of Agriculture iu Scotland. 



166 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

The same writer mentions another practice, which perhaps 
it may be thought proper to imitate in this country, because 
it saves labor and care. Some English farmers, he says, 
'keep two or three little store pigs in the fatting sty. While 
th° fatting hogs are taking their repast, the little ones wait 
behind them, and as soon as their betters are served, lick out 
the troughs. 

' Besides the advantage of having by this expedient no 
waste nor foul troughs, there is another. The large pigs 
rise alertly to their food, lest the small ones should forestall 
them ; and fill themselves the fuller, knowing that they have 
it not again to go to. 

' The disadvantage of this practice is, I understand, the 
large ones are apt to lord it too much over the little ones ; 
especially in a confined sty. If, however, they had a sepa- 
rate apartment assigned them, with an entrance too small for 
the fatting swine to follow them, this disadvantage would be 
in a great measure remedied.' 

If one wishes to fatten hogs, and either from indolence or 
too much occupation does not expect to give them a con- 
stant and regular attention, perhaps he may adopt to advan- 
tage the following" mode, pointed out by an English writer. 
' Mr. John Adams, of Cherrington, near Newport, Shrop- 
shire, has fattened eight pigs in the following cheap and easy 
manner : he places two troughs in the sty, one he fills with 
raw potatoes, the other with peas, and gives no water ; when 
the pigs are dry they eat the potatoes. The eight pigs were 
fattened so as to weigh from sixteen to twenty score each, 
and ate no more than thirty bushels of peas, and about two 
hundred bushels of potatoes.' No doubt dry Indian corn 
and potatoes might be fed out in this way with as good an 
effect as peas and potatoes. 

Rubbing and currying the hides of fattening hogs is of 
great advantage to them. It is not only very grateful to 
them, but conducive to their health. It will be well, like- 
wise, in every sty to place a strong post for the animals to rub 
against. During the time of their fattening they should have 
plenty of litter, which will be a double advantage, providing 
for the comfort of the animal and increasing the quantity of 
manure. 

Boiled or steamed clover hay wall, it is said, keep store 
hogs in the w^inter, but the addition of boiled cr steamed po- 
tatoes or carrots will much increase the value of the wash. 
Mr. Young directs to soil or feed swine in a yard on clover, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 167 

cut up with a scythe, in preference to pasturing them in the 
field. But judge Peters, of Pennsylvania, says, ' In summer 
my hogs chiefly run on clover. Supine feeding on clover in 
the fields will thrive wonderfully ; when those (confined or 
not) fed on cut clover will fall away.' In Indian harvest, 
the unripe ears of corn should be picked out and given to 
the hogs as fast as they can eat them. Soft com (as it is 
called) will do them much more good in a green than in a 
dried state, and it is very difficult to dry it without its turn- 
ing mouldy. 

There is a great advantage in boiling, steaming, or baking 
almost all sorts of food given to swine. The last American 
edition of 'the Domestic Encyclopedia informs, that 'Mr. 
Timothy Kirk, of Yorktown, Pennsylvania, fed one pig with 
boiled potatoes and Indian corn, and another with the same 
articles unboiled. The two animals were weighed every 
week, and the difference between them was as six to nine. 
The experiment was continued several weeks, and the ani- 
mals alternately fed upon boiled and unboiled food, with a 
uniformity of result, which sufficiently showed the very great 
profit arising from boiled food.' Steaming will answer as 
good a purpose as boiling, and with a proper apparatus may 
be more easily and cheaply effected.^ Potatoes, meal, and 
a little linseed boiled together, make a rich and excellent 
wash. Boiled linseed, it is said, has a tendency to make 
pork soft and oily, and should therefore be but little if at all 
used towards the close of the time in which hog-s are fatten- 
ing. Grains of distilleries and the refuse of starch factories 
are excellent for fattening swine. Sweet apples are very 
good food for them, and a change of diet pretty often pro- 
motes their health and quickens the process of fattening. 
Their meals should frequently be seasoned with a little salt. 
The Complete Farmer says that ' moist sedgy grounds are 
good for swine, the roots which grow in such soils they will 
eat; likewise brakes, ground-nuts, acorns, chestnuts,' &c. 
Dr. Anderson said that the hogs that are fed upon the acorns 
that they gather in the woods of Germany and Poland are 
reckoned to yield the finest bacon of any in Europe ; and 
it is to this that most people ascribe the superior excellence 
of Westphalia hams. It might be well to try acorns steamed 
or boiled, in order to correct their crudeness and bitterness ; 
and it has been recommended to moisten them, and keep 

* See New England Farmer, vol. i. p. 23. 



168 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

them on hand till they begin to sprout, when they will be 
more sweet and nutritious than in their original state. The 
Complete Farmer asserts that ' when hogs are fatted entire- 
ly on acorns, chestnuts, and other productions of the forest, 
the flesh will eat much better and sweeter than if fattened in 
a sty. Some indeed say their fat will not be so solid, nor so 
profitable, and therefore they commonly shut them up a week 
or ten days, and feed them with dry peas ; but this is a mis- 
take, experience having shown that hogs fatted with acorns 
only have their fat as solid as those fatted with peas.'' If this 
be correct, the value of acorns as food for su ine is not o-ene- 
rally known in those parts of the United States with which 
we have been acquainted. We have seen places in the 
neighborhood of farmers' dwellings where bushels might be 
had for stooping, but were as much neglected as if they had 
been pebble stones. The acorns recommended are, we be- 
lieve, those of the white oak ; and whether the acorns of the 
numerous other kinds of oak are of any value as food for 
swine Ave cannot say. It might be well to try them, not only 
raw, but boiled or steamed, and likewise ground into meal, 
and given with, as well as without other mixtures. We sus- 
pect that acorns alone would prove astringent, and if so, they 
might be qualified with a trough full of raw potatoes. 

Carrots, according to Mr. Young, are better than potatoes, 
and some other writers assure us that parsnips are better 
than either for feeding hogs. An English writer says, ' They 
fatten all their pork in the island of Jersey with parsnips. 
They are much more saccharine than carrots, and it is well 
known that nothing fattens a hog faster or makes finer pork 
than the sugar-cane:' and we are told that parsnips suflfered 
to remain in the ground where they grew through the 
winter, and drawn in the spring and boiled tops and bot- 
toms, made most excellent food for swine when other food 
was scarce. 

Acid or fermented food for swine has been highly recom- 
mended. Mr. Arthur Young, whose authority amongst hus- 
bandmen is almost equal to that of the pope with Roman 
Catholics, says, ' that the most profitable method of convert- 
ing corn of any kind into food for hogs is to grind it into 
meal, and mix this with water in cisterns, in the proportion 
of five bushels of meal to one hundred g-allons water ; stir- 
rmg It well several times a day for three weeks in cold 
weather, or a fortnight in a warmer season, by which it will 
have fermented well and become acid, till which it is not 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 169 

iready to give. The mixture should always be stirred im- 
mediately before feeding-, and two or three cisterns should 
be kept fermenting in succession, that no necessity may oc- 
cur of giving it not duly prepared.' Judge Peters, of Penn- 
sylvania, whose authority is, in our opinion, not inferior to 
that of any man who ever wrote on agricultural topics, says, 
in substance, that ' soir food is most grateful and alimentary 
to swine. One gallon of sour wash goes farther than two 
of sweet.' But 

An English \/ork entitled ' Farmer's Calendar,' (author's 
name not given,) declares that ' much has been said, and lit- 
tle understood, about 'purposely souring food for hogs. It is 
not that q,cidity can possibly tend to pinguefaction, [making 
fat,] but it is found the pigs will readily fatten upon acid, or 
rather acescent food, a sweetish taste and glutinous quality 
succeeding fermentation ; and that they will do so still more 
readily upon such as has never reached the acid state, I know 
and have seen in hundreds of instances. Is a proof wanted ? 
How much more readily do the country hogs feed upon 
sweet and unfermented food, than those of the starch-house 
upon the fermented and subacid wash, however rich. I 
say subacid, for did not starch-makers run off a great part 
of that which is really sour, they would kill instead of fatten 
their hogs.' In order to reconcile these writers it will only 
be necessary to advert to the different stages of ordinary 
fermentation, and the products of each stage. The hrst 
stage of fermentation produces sugar, and is called the sac- 
charine fermentation. The second stage develops alcohol, 
or spirit of wine, and is called the vinous fermentation. 
The third stage produces vinegar, and is called the acid fermen- 
tation ; and the fourth and last stage converts the matter 
fermenting into a substance which is not only offensive, but 
poisonous, and is called the putrid fermentation. Thus if 
you soak wheat or other farinaceous substance in water of a 
proper temperature it will first become sweet, and begin to 
sprout or vegetate ; it will next afford spirit or alcohol ; con- 
tinue the process, th3 wash turns sour, at first slightly, and 
then more strongly acid ; and at last the whole becomes pu- 
trid. It probably contains most nourishment when it is 
sweetest, but it is valuable till very sour, when it is worth 
little or nothing; and when the putrid fermentation has 
commenced it is worse than nothing, as food for any animal. 
The farmer then should give his wash to his pigs while it is 
yet sweet, or but beginning to turn sour. 
15 



170 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

Fattening Pigs on Coal. Cunningham, in his ' Two Years 
in Neiv South Wales,' relates, ' I had often heard it said 
among sailors that pigs would fatten on coals, and although 
I had observed them very fond of munching up the coals and 
cinders that came in their way, still I conceived they might 
relish them more as a condiment or medicine than as food, 
till I was assured by a worthy friend of mine, long in com- 
mand of a ship, that he once knew of a pig being lost for 
several weeks in a vessel he commanded, and it was at last 
found to have tumbled into the coal-hole, and there lived all 
that period without a single morsel of any thing to feed upon 
but coals : on being dragged out, it was found as plump and 
fat as if it had been feasting on the most nutritious food. 
Another friend told me of a similar case, which came under 
his observation ; and although these may be solitary instan- 
ces, yet they serve at least to show the wonderful facility 
which the stomachs of certain animals possess of adapting 
their digestive powers to such an extraordinary species of 
food, and extracting wholesome nourishment therefrom. 
When we consider coal, however, to be a vegetable produc- 
tion, containing the constituent principles of fat, carbon, 
hydrogen, and oxygen, our surprise will decrease.' 

An Ohio farmer also, in a southern paper, recommends 
coals as useful in fattening hogs. After giving his hogs a 
small quantity daily, say two pieces to each, about the size 
of a hen's egg, they discontinued rooting, were more quiet, 
and appeared to fatten faster. He omitted the coal a few 
days, and they commenced rooting ; he gave it again, and 
they ceased to root. He supposed that the coal corrects the 
morbid fluid in the stomach, which incites them to root deep 
in search of fresh earth. • 

The following mixture for fattening swine has been re- 
commended : 

Wash potatoes clean, boil and mash while hot, mix in at 
the same time oats and pea meal. Put the mixture into a 
large tub, which must stand till it becomes sour, but not 
putrid. Keep a quantity of this on hand, always fermenting, 
and give it to your hogs as often as they will eat. 

Apples have been much recommended as food for swine. 
They are good raw, but better if boiled and mixed with 
meal. A writer for the Brattleborough Reporter observes, 
* I have tested by ten years' experience the value of apples 
as food for animals. I keep five or six hogs in my orchard, 
upon nothing but apples and a little swill ; and have uni- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



itl 



formly found them to grow and gain flesh faster than hogs 
fed upon any thing else but grain. On the first of Novem- 
ber, they are very decent pork ; after which I feed them 
about six weeks on grain before I kill them; and I believe I 
have as fat hogs and as good pork as my neighbors, who 
give to their hogs double the quantity of grain that I do to 
mine.' 

Sows devouring their Offspring. It is not unfrequently 
the case that sows destroy their offspring. In the New 
England Farmer, vol. v. p. 214, is a communication from the 
Hon. O. Fiske, in which he observes, ' In most cases where 
I have inquired into the fact, whether in old or young breed- 
ers, I hav^ ascertained that they have been disturbed in some 
of their essential habits, either having been removed from 
their companions, their range restricted, or from being re- 
moved from one pen to another. All these changes, how- 
ever, may be effected with safety, by allowing them sufficient 
time to become accustomed to them, four or five weeks at 
ler.st. I have known sows do well with a second litter after 
having destroyed a first under one of the above excitements. 
Hence it would be unwise to condemn to death one which 
bid fair otherwise to be a valuable breeder, ev^en for this 
rr.ost unnatural crime. 

Another writer, with the signature 'D.' directs to 'separate 
the sow from the rest of the swine six or eight weeks before 
her bringing forth, so that she may become accustomed to 
her pen. Care should be taken, however, to have her pen 
kept dry and well littered ; always give them litter enough 
so as not to be obliged to give any for six days before the 
time, for nothing disturbs a sow more than an abundance of 
litter, and which in my opinion has a great tendency to in- 
duce her to destroy her young. If the sow is with the other 
swine till within a few days of her bringing forth, and then 
separated, she will not get accustomed to her pen, and being 
disturbed, she will be pretty sure to destroy her pigs. 

' Raw salt pork, cut in small pieces, and given, will pre- 
vent them from eating their pigs. I have seen it given after 
they had ate two or three of their litter, with good success. 
But to prevent any mischief it should be kept by them at 
this tiine.^^ A writer for the same paper, vol. xi. p. 298, 
observes, ' I have been careful for about a week before my 
sows were about to farrow^, to give them some butcher's re- 

* N. E. Farmer, vol. xi. p. 297. 



172 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

fuse meat, which does not cost much ; if easy to be procured 
give them a plenty, and I will venture to say that they will 
not eat their pigs.' 

Another, in the same volume, p. 305, observes, ' When the 
period of yeaning is near 1 take the sow apart and give her 
free access to a warm bed-room of ample dimensions in my 
barn, with a dry plank floor, where the shingled walls pre- 
vent the entrance of cold, rain, or wind, with just enough 
straw to amuse her " moments of anxiety," but not enough to 
allow a single pig to cover his head and lose his road to the 
fountain of comfort.' A writer with the signature ' Berk- 
shire,' in the same volume, p. 321, states as his opinion that the 
evil is caused by confining the sow in a light pen from the 
ground, and the want of a suitable supply of potatoes, turnips, 
ruta baga, &c., in addition to their other food. ' Whaler,'' 
in the same paper, p. 33S, who has raised fine pigs on board 
of a whale ship, at sea, without grass or roots, believed ani- 
mal food the specific remedy for the unnatural inclination of 
sows to devour their offspring. And ' A Subscriber' ' is san- 
guine in the opinion that if sows are so placed as to be able 
to come to the ground a few days before pigging, no disap- 
pointment would ever happen in the loss of pigs. It is not 
convenient to let them ramble at large ; a temporary pen up- 
on ground is equally good.' 

Swine should not be kept in close and filthy pens. Though 
they wallow in mire, their object is coolness, not nastiness, 
and they thrive faster and enjoy better health when allowed 
clean and dry lodgings than when they are not thus accom- 
modated. The late judge Peters, of Pennsylvania, in an 
article entitled ' Notices for a Young Farmer, '^ &;c., observed, 
that ' there is no greater mistake than that of gorging swine, 
when first penned for fattening. They should, on the contra- 
ry, be moderately and frequently fed, so that they be kept 
full, but do not loathe or reject their food, and in the end 
contract fevers and dangerous maladies, originating in a hot 
and corrupted mass of blood. In airy and roomy, yet mode- 
rately warm pens, paved and boarded, and often cleaned, 
they are healthy and thriving. They show a disposition to 
be cleanly, however otherwise it is supposed, and always 
leave their excrementitious matter in a part of the pen dis- 
tinct from that in which they lie down. No animal will 
thrive unless it be kept clean.' 

The same writer asserted in substance, that fatting hogs 
should always be supplied with dry rotten wood, which 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 173 

should be kept in their pens, for the animals to eat as their 
appetites or instincts may direct. It has been supposed, 
likewise, that swine thrive the better when they can obtain, 
fresh earth, which they arc often observed to swallow with 
greediness. Charcoal, it is said by some, will answer as 
good, if not a more valuable purpose ; and that if swine can 
obtain charcoal, they will not only greedily devour a portion 
of that substance, but will be but little inclined to rooting, 
and remain quiet in their pens. 

It is an object of much consequence to obtain the best 
breed of swine, not only as regards the saving of food, but 
producing the best qualities of flesh. The Hon. Oliver Fiske, 
of Worcester, as before observed, has rendered great service 
to the community by introducing to the notice of farmers in 
this country a variety of this animal called the Bedford 
Breed. This breed has been highly recommended by many 
who have ascertained their merits by trial. His excellency 
Levi Lincoln, late governor of Massachusetts, and president 
of the Worcester Agricultural society, has given his opinion 
of this variety, in a letter, from which the following are 
extracts : 

' I have great pleasure in voluntarily offering myself as 
your compurgator in the representations with which you 
have recently favored the public, of the Bedford breed of 
swine. The care and perseverance which have marked your 
attention to the prospects and value of these animals, and 
the success which has followed your exertions to introduce 
them to the favor of practical farmers, require, at least, an 
acknowledgment of obligation from all those who have been 
particularly benefited by your liberality, and from no one 
more than from myself. This breed of swine has taken the 
place of a long-legged, long-nosed, flat-sided, thriftless race, 
called by some the Irish breed, by others the Russian, which 
Avould barely pay by their weight for ordinary keeping, and 
never for one-half the expense of fattening, if, indeed, grain 
would make them fat.' 

' I had three pigs butchered from the same litter, precisely 
seven and a half months old. Their weights, when dressed, 
were two hundred and thirty, two hundred thirty-five, and 
two hundred and thirty-eight and a half pounds. One sold 
in Boston for six and one -fourth cents per pound ; the others 
were put up here for family use. The expense of keeping 
and fatten- ng these pigs, I am satisfied, was less than with 

any other breed I ever raised, and the proportion of bone and 
15# 



174 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

offal to the valuable parts was surprisingly small. I have 
fifteen more on my farm, part designed for the market in the 
spring, and part to be kept over as store swine, and their ap- 
pearance will furnish ocular satisfaction of the propriety of 
all which has been said in favor of the breed.' 

The above is followed by a communication from the Hon. 
0. Fiske, in which he says : ' I have obtained the following 
account of the introduction of this breed of swine from the 
Hon. T. Pickering. He saw them first on a farm of general 
Ridgely, about fourteen miles from Philadelphia. General 
Ridgely informed him that they were brought to this 
country as a present to general Washington, from the duke 
of Bedford, who committed them to the care of an English 
farmer by the name of Parkinson. This man took a farm in 
the neighborhood of Baltimore ; but instead of sending the 
swine to general Washington, Parkinson sold them. Gene- 
ral Ridgely esteemed them very highly, and sent colonel 
Pickering a pair of them, in a vessel bound to Salem. 

Mr. John Reed, of Roxbury, obtained the breed from colo- 
nel Pickering's stock ; from Mr. Reed I obtained the offspring 
from separate litters, and transferred them to Worcester, 
where, by avoiding the breeding directly in and in, I have 
preserved them without degenerating. The race is most 
perfect and valuable when unadulterated, but atfords a most 
valuable improvement to our native breed when judiciously 
crossed.' 

Captain John Mackay, of Boston, has exhibited at Brigh- 
ton a peculiar and excellent breed of swine, which have re- 
peatedly received premiums from the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural society. 



MANURES. No soil will always prove productive 
without manure. Though naturally fertile, if some equiva- 
lent for its produce is not returned to it ; if it is always 
yielding and never receiving, it must, at length, become 
barren. 

Particular spots, like Egypt, and other alluvial or inter- 
val lands, which are annually overflowed, derive manure 
from the bountiful hand of nature, and cannot be rendered 
barren by bad husbandry or continual cropping. Some 
soils, likewise, are not easily exhausted, and are easily re- 
cruited, in consequence of being composed of materials which 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 175 

attract and retain the food of plants from air and water, as 
well as afford a proper medium to prepare and communicate 
the princinle of fertility. 

Every species of matter capable of promoting the growth 
of vegetables may be considered as manure. Vegetables are 
composed of certain substances called by chemists oxygen, 
[formerly called vital air] hydrogen, [inflammable air] car- 
bon, [coaly matter] and nitrogen, or azote, one of the con- 
stituent parts of the atmosphere. The substances employed 
as manure should be composed of all or some of tliese ele- 
ments. 

Vegetable and animal substances, deposited in the soil, are 
consumed daring the process of vegetation ; being mostly 
absorbed by the roots of plants, combined with water. These 
substances compose what is called the food of plants. This 
food is mostly taken in by the roots, which are analogous to 
the mouths of animals, but some portion of the nourishment 
of vegetables is also derived from the atmosphere, imbibed 
by the leaves and bark. Thus the carcasses of lambs and 
other small animals are som.etimes hung on the limbs of fruit- 
trees to promote their growth, and cause them to bear abun- 
dantly, and thus produce some effect ; but the practice is 
slovenly and wasteful, as the air is contaminated, and the 
carcass buried near the roots would be much more efficient 
as manure. 

A controversy has existed relative to the degree of fer- 
mentation which manure should undergo before it is applied 
to the soil. Some agriculturists contend that long, fresh, or 
unfermented manure is to be preferred. Others assert that 
stable and barn-yard manure never should be spread in the 
field till the fibrous texture of the vegetable matter is entire- 
ly broken down, and it becomes perfectly cold, and so soft as 
to be easily cut with a spade. 

Sir Humphrey Davy observes, ' If the pure dung of cattle 
is to be used as manure, there seems no reason why it should 
be made to ferment, except in the soil; or if suffered to fer- 
ment it should be only in a very slight degree. The grass 
in the neighborhood of recently voided dung is always coarse 
and dark green ; some persons have attributed this to a nox- 
ious quality in unfermented dung ; but it seems to be rather 
the result of an excess of food furnished to the plants. 

' During the violent fermentation which is necessary for 
reducing farm-yard manure to the state of what is called 
short muck, not only a large quantity of fluid, but likewise of 



176 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

gaseous matter, is lost ; so much so that the dung is reduced 
one-half or two-thirds in weight ; and the principal elastic 
matter disengaged, in carbonic acid, and some ammonia ; 
and both of these, if retained by the moisture of the soil, are 
capable of becoming useful nourishment of plants. 

' It is usual to carry straw that can be employed for no 
other purpose to the dunghill to ferment and decompose ; 
but it is worth an experiment, whether it may not be more 
economically applied when chopped small by a proper ma- 
chine, and kept dry till it is ploughed in for the use of the 
crop. In this case, though it would decompose much more 
slowly and produce less effect at first, yet its influence would 
be more lasting.' 

Robert Smith, Esq., president of the Maryland Agricul- 
tural society, in an address to that society, observed, ' With 
respect to stable dung, I shall for the present content my- 
self by barely suggesting, that my experience strongly in- 
clines me to the opinion that, however long, it ought to be 
ploughed into the ground without any previous stirring, and 
as soon as practicable after it has been taken from the farm- 
yard.' 

We believe that the question relative to long and to short 
manure must depend on circumstances. In certain soils, and 
for certain crops, long manure which has undergone but a 
slight fermentation is to be preferred. But if used for wheat, 
and other kinds of grain, and in all crops which cannot con- 
veniently be hoed or weeded, or, probably, when applied to 
soils containing acids or some substances which may prevent 
fermentation and retard the progress of putrescence and dis- 
solution, it must be well rotted. 

Rotting manure, however, in a barn-yard, or in any situa- 
tion in which its volatile and liquid products escape into the 
atmosphere, or soak into soil not designed to support vege- 
tation, is very slovenly and wasteful, and always to be avoid- 
ed if possible. The effluvia or gas which is suffered to es- 
cape from fermenting manure is not only almost altogether 
lost to useful vegetation, but, what is still worse, fills the at- 
mosphere with particles injurious to health, and often de- 
structive to life. The evaporations from a manure yard 
rob the farmer of a part of his substance, starve his crops, 
and it is well if they do not, moreover, poison him and his 
family by their contaminating influence. Some farmers' 
barn-yards, hogpens, and other receptacles of manure, are 
very oflfensive, and if they do not generate typhus fever in 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 177 

its worst form, which we fear is frequently the case, they at 
least cause a degree of languor and debility, which embit- 
ters existence, and in a great measure disqualifies for any 
useful purposes of life. It is a fact that those exhalations so 
injurious to animal life are the essence of vegetable life, and 
the volatile substances which offend our senses and inj ire 
our health, if arrested in their transit by the hand of skilful 
industry, may be so modified in the great laboratory of na- 
ture as to greet us in the fracjrance of a flower, regale us in 
the plum or nectarine, or furnish the stamina of life in sub- 
stantial viands from the field and the stall of the cultivator. 

If we are correct in the foregoing an important axiom 
may be adduced, viz. : No putrefactive process ought to be 
suffered to proceed on a farmer''s premises, ivithout .lie adopt- 
ing some mode to save, as far as possible, the gaseous products 
of such putrescence. These gaseous products constitute im- 
portant elements of vegetable food, and a farmer may as 
well suffer his cattle to stray from his stall, or his swine 
from his sty, without a possibility of reclaiming them, as 
permit the principles of fertility expelled by fermentation or 
putrefaction to escape into the atmosphere for the purpose 
of poisoning the air, instead of feeding the plants. It is 
very easy to arrest these particles. A quantity of earth 
thrown over the matter in which the fermentation is going 
on will check its violence and arrest its gaseous products, 
which will be imbibed by the soil, and afterwards yielded to 
plants in such proportion as the wants of vegetation may 
require. 

' Fermentation, that destroyer of all organic conformation, 
is not to be feared by the farmer, if it be conducted and car- 
ried on in the presence of earth, which fixes and secures the 
gases as fast as they are liberated. Even the degree of the 
process i^ a matter of less consequence ; because if the ele- 
mentary principles are in keeping, and reserved for future 
usefulness, it is immaterial whether this has happened by a 
new absorption, or by still holding their original and un- 
changed form. In his composite hill, [compost heap] the 
whole animal or vegetable structure may be dissolved, and 
leave behind no trace of existence, without the least waste 
of the principles of fertility ; because the ingredients super- 
added to the dung have become surcharged with them, or, to 
speak philosophically, fully saturated. We may go farther 
and state that complete decomposition is desirable in this 
case, which is so much to be avoided in the farm-yard ; be- 



178 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

cause putrescent matter can only beconme vegetable food by 
its resolution into primary parts, and if this be effected by 
any preparatory step, the young crop receives the full and 
instantaneous benefit. The compost manure is carried to 
the field ready to give out its richness on the very first call, 
and to supply the nascent radicle [young root] with a copi- 
ous share of nourishment. 

' The putrefactive process may be carried on in the pre- 
sence of pure earth only, or of earth intermingled with fibrous 
roots, or lastly in the presence of peat, which is an assem- 
blage of inert vegetable matter, and compost dunghills may 
be formed according to this threefold method. 

' The simplest of all composts is a mixture of barn-yard 
dung and surface mould taken fr>m a field under regular 
culture. The proportions between the ingredients are fixed 
by no determinate laws, and consequently great liberty is 
allowable to the operator. I have known some instances 
where two cart-loads of dung were used for one of earth ; 
others where they were blended in equal quantities ; and it 
is not unfrequent to compound two of earth with one of dung. 
In fact such is the uncertainty in the composition, that al- 
most every farmer adopts one peculiar to himself, and with 
equal success. No man need therefore follow implicitly the 
rules which have been laid dovv^n in this department of rural 
economy, but may vary and multiply his experiments, ac- 
cording to the suggestions of fancy or the dictates of con- 
venience. If we slightly glance at the principle, we shall 
see the cause of this seemingly endless variety in the com- 
binations of the ingredients. The only use of intermixing 
the soil with the dung is to imbibe the gaseous elements of 
vegetable life, and hinder their dissipation. If there be much 
soil, these elements will be diffused through it with less den- 
sity and compression ; if little, it will be more al^undantly 
saturated and enriched with the nutritive vapors. The only 
error into which the farmer can run is to supply such an in- 
considerable quantity of soil as will be incapable of im- 
bibing the elastic and volatile particles, and thus by his own 
mismanagement occasion a waste of the vegetable aliment. 
One cart-load of soil to two of stable dung is the least pro- 
portion which he should ever attempt to combine, and per- 
haps if the two were mixed equally, he would be compensa- 
ted for the additional labor and expense. 

' Simple earth, although excellent for bottoming and 
strewing over the pit dug near the barn, is of all materials 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 179 

the most unprofitable in compost dimghills. A matted sward, 
thickly entangled with roots, or mud dragged from the bot- 
tom of bogs or ditches, and replete with aquatic plants, are 
clearly preferable on this account, that, besides bringing earth 
to the composition, they supply a large proportion of vege- 
table matter. Whenever the soil must be carted to the heap 
it is better to lay out the expense in transportuig these en- 
riching materials ; because they will not only equally ab- 
sorb and retain the evaporating gases, but greatly augment 
the quantity of manure.'"^ 

The path proper for a farmer to pursue in order to make 
the most of his manure, and preserve his own health and 
that of his family, is as plain as a turnpike. Whenever pu- 
trid fermentation is going on in any part of his premises, and 
consuming his substance by a slow but wasteful combustion, 
let him apply earth, peat, or some other earthy substance in 
quantities sufficient to attract, imbibe, and retain all the 
effluvia. Health, profit, and cleanliness equally require such 
a proceeding. We shall say a word or two on the latter 
topic. If a man were to swallow daily a quantity of filthy 
matter, or to eat his food impregnated with vapors from a 
manure heap, or from some other putrefying and offensive 
substance, when he might by a little exertion avoid such 
nauseous viands, and substitute something nourishing, palat- 
able, pure, and wholesome, we should esteem him no better 
than a Hottentot. But a man may almost as well take filth 
into his stomach, as filthy effluvia into his lungs; he may 
about as well dine with a crow or a buzzard as sup with a 
toad ' on the vapor of a dunghill.' 

The farmer who arrests the rank vapors which emanate 
from decaying animal and vegetable matter, and instead of 
permitting them to pass into and contaminate the air he 
breathes, treasures up the invisible particles with which they 
are laden, and applies them to feed useful vegetables, causes 
the atmosphere to be healthy, and his plants to be thrifty by 
the same means. 

The celebrated lord Erskine, in a speech delivered at one 
of the annual sheep shearings at Holkham, in England, made 
the following remarks on this subject : 

* If we consider the subject of manure, we shall perceive 
one of the most striking beauties and benefits of divine or- 
dination, and of that wisdom with which we are blessed a 

Letters of Agricola, by John Young, Esq. 



180 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

thousand ways without knowing it. This very substance, 
had it been useless, must have accumulated in heaps, intoler- 
ably n )isome and perpetually pestilential ; but by the bless- 
ing of Providence, it is every man's interest to remove these 
otherwise increasing mountains of filth, and by decomposi- 
tion, in various ways, in a great measure concealed from us, it 
gives increase to our fields, and adds to our means of indus- 
try, and the reward of the husbandman.' 

Those who cultivate the ground do not always act the 
provident part supposed by lord Erskine, in the sentence 
above quoted. On the contrary, farmers too often suffer ma- 
nure to accumulate and waste in heaps, generating effluvia 
' intolerably noisome and perpetually pestilential,' without 
fear of fever or famine, both of which are courted by such 
conduct. Not only dung is too often allowed to Avaste its 
richness on the tainted air, but straw and other litter is suf- 
fered to grow mouldy and consume by what is sometimes 
called the dry rot, both of which might be prevented, or their 
bad effects obviated, by covering or mixing them with a suita- 
ble quantity of earth. Besides, dead animals, contents of 
pi ivies, the emptyings of sinks, spoiled provisions, the refuse 
of the dairy, the pantry, end the cellar, are allowed to min- 
gle their odours in nauseating and deleterious profusion. 
Sometimes the highway is rendered almost impassable in 
consequence of a dead horse, sheep, dog, or cat undergoing 
the process of decomposition in a situation correctly calcu- 
lated to annoy travelers. Some farmers hang dead lambs, 
cats, dogs, &c., in the forks of apple-trees, or throw them on 
hovels or stumps, at some elevation from the ground, to give 
the pestilential emanations a chance to diifuse themselves, 
without coming in contact with the earth, which might con- 
vert them from poison to men and animals into food for 
plants. If, however, such animal remains are deposited in 
a barn-yard or manure heap, they are too often suffered to 
lie and rot on the surface, offending the senses, and injuring 
the health of a whole village. Practices of this kind are 
well reproved by Sir Humphrey Davy, who says, ' Horses, 
dogs, sheep, deer, and other quadrupeds that have died acci- 
dentally or of diseases, after their skins are separated, are 
often suffered to remain, exposed to the air, or immersed in 
Avater, till they are destroyed by birds or beasts of prey, or 
entirely decomposed ; and in this case most of their organ- 
izable matter is lost from the land on which they lie, and a 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 181 

considerable portion of it employed in giving out noxious 
gaces to the atmjspliere. 

' By covering dead inimals with five or six times their 
bulk of soil, mixed with ono part of lime, and sufferiag- them 
to remain for a few months, their decomposition would im- 
pregnate the soil with soluble matters, so as to render it an 
excellent manure ; and by mixing a little fresh quicklime 
with it, at the time of its removal, the disagreeable effluvia 
will be in a great measure destroyed, and it might be em- 
ployed in the same way as any other manure to crops. "^ 

If, however, quicklime cannot readily be obtained to ac- 
celerate the conversion of dead animals into manure, it is 
probable that covering the carcasses with a pretty thick coat 
of unleached ashes, and placing ov^er all a quantity of earth 
or earthy substance, would hasten decomposition, and secure 
the gases resulting from putrescence. Earth alone will 
answer a valuable purpose, and in time the largest animal 
will \je decomposed in nothing but common soil. 

Not only the carcasses of animals, but their excrements 
and urine are rendered of little value by long exposure to 
the air. Indeed, every moment of such exposure robs them 
of a part of their fertility, as well as contaminates the at- 
mosphere. ' He who is within the sphere of the scent of a 
dunghill (says the celebrated Arthur Young) smells that 
which his crop would have eaten, if he would have permitted 
it. Instead of manuring the land he manures the atmo- 
sphere; and before his dunghill is finished, he has manured 
another parish, perhaps another county.' As few exhala- 
tions as possible ought to be suffered to rise from the excre- 
ments of animals. Fresh manure ought to be kept as care- 
fully from the sun and rain as grass which has been cut for 
hay. When cattle have been yarded over night, it would 
be well to throw their droppings into small heaps or beds, 
and cover them at least with a sufficient quantity of earth to 
prevent fermentation, or absorb its products. This would 
cost but little labor, and would much enhance the value of 
the manure. 

It has been, and we believe in some instances still is in 
vogue among farmers, to turn over and mix barn-yard ma- 
nure several times before it is carried to the field. This 
practice, however, is exploded among the best informed cul- 
tivators. Mr. A. Young says ' no turning, but if circumstan- 

* Agricultural Chemistry. 
16 



182 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

ces of the richness, quantity, or weather have occasioned too 
much fermentation, or this is suspected, scatter every now 
and then a quantity of the same earth over the surface, with 
which the yard was bedded. This may be so proportioned 
as to keep the mass from too much fermentation.' 

It is remarked by the author of Letters of Agricola, that 
' Earth is a powerful t^bsorber of all the gases which arise 
from putrefaction. The earth possesses not only the proper- 
ty of retaining the putrid steams which are formed from 
the dung of decomposing bodies within itself, but alcD of 
attracting the effluvia when floating in the air. The salu- 
brity of a country depends on this latter quality ; as the 
practice of burying the dung in the earth is founded on the 
former. The stench proceeding from the dissolution of 
organized matter never rises through the ground to assail 
the nostrils, although it is sufficiently offensive from bodies 
corrupting in air or water. A stroiigly dunged field, after 
being ploughed, sown, and harrowed, sends forth a healthful 
and refreshing smell ; a proof thai all the putrid vapors, 
which otherwise would annoy us, are absorbed and retamed 
for the nutrition of the crop. It is on this account that the 
poorest earth can be enriched in a very high degree by mere 
exposure to the gases of putrefaction. Put a layer of com- 
mon soil along the top of a fermenting dunghill, from twelve 
to eighteen inches thick, and allow it to remain there while 
the process is carrying on with activity, and afterv/ards 
separate it carefully from the heap, and it will have been 
impregnated with the most fertilizing virtues. The com- 
posts, which of late have attracted such universal attention, 
and occupied so large a place in all agricultural publications, 
originated in the discovery of this absorbing power of the 
earth, and in the application of it to the most beneficial of 
purposes. A skilful agriculturist would no more think of 
allowing a dolent fermentation to be going on in his dunghill, 
unmixed with earth or other matter to fir. and secure the 
gaseous elements, than the distiller would suffer his appara- 
tus to be set at work without surmounting his still with the 
worm to cool and condense the rarefied spirit which ascends 
to evaporation. In both the most precious matter is that 
which assumes the aeriform state ; and to behold ic escaping 
with unconcerned indiffoii-ence, is a demonstration of the 
most profound ignorance.' 

Liquid Manure. Water in its purest state, when it has 
been distilled or filtered through sand, still retains somewhat 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 183 

of tlie food of plants. Its component parts, oxygen and 
hydiogen, under certain circumstances, are seized by vegeta- 
bles while in their growing state, and converted into the pro- 
ducts which form the constituents of all vegetables. But 
pure water forms a meagre diet for plants. It may support 
life in vegetables, and some plants will maintain a feeble 
growth with very little nourishment except what is afforded 
them by pure water and air. But when water is impregnat- 
ed with certain salts and gases, particularly such as are 
evolved during the fermentation and decomposition of vege- 
table and animal substances, it becomes what is called liquid 
manure. Urine, or the stale of all animals, is water holding 
in solution certain salts and other substances, which are 
the essence of manure^ or the food of plants in a concentrated 
state. 

Fresh urine is a very powerful and efficacious manure, 
when properly applied, but if not mixed with solid matter it 
should be diluted with water, as when pure it contains too 
large a quantity of animal matter to form a proper fluid 
nourishment for absorption by the roots of plants. Urine is 
lessened in value, but its useful qualities are not entirely 
lost, by putrescence. During putrefaction the greatest part 
of the soluble animal matter that urine contains is destroy- 
ed ; it should therefore be used as fresh as possible, with the 
precaution of diluting it with water, or mixing it w^ith earth. 
Putrid urine, however, is a valuable manure. It abounds in 
ammoniacal salts ; and though less active than fresh urine, 
is very efficacious."^ 

According to soxne writers and practical farmers, the 
value of the urine of cattle, if properly preserved and applied 
to the purposes of vegetation, is greater than that of all the 
dung which the same animals would yield ! A letter from 
Charles Alexander, near Peebles, in Scotland, addressed to 
Sir John Sinclair, in 1812, for publication, contains much 
valuable information on this subject. ' This intelligent far- 
mer had long been impressed with the great importance of 
the uri::e of cattle as a manure, and he set about to discover, 
by a long and well-conducted series of experiments, the best 
method of collecting and applying it. He began by digging 
a pit contiguous to the feeding-stall, but distinct altogether 
from that which was appropriated for the reception of the 
dung. The dimensions of this pit, according to his own ac- 

* See Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. 



184 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

count, were thirty-six feet square and four feet deep, sur- 
rounded on all sides by a wall ; and the solid contents were 
one hundred and ninety-two yards. Having selected the 
nearest spot where he could find loamy earth, and this he 
always took from the surface of some field under cultivation, 
he proceeded to fill it; and found that, with three men and 
two horses, he could easily accomplish twenty-eight cubic 
yards per day ; and the whole expense of transporting the 
earth did not exceed four pounds sixteen shillings sterling, 
[about twenty-two dollars.] When the work was complete, 
he levelled the surface of the heap in a line with the sewer 
which conducted the urine from the interior of the building, 
on purpose that it might be distributed with regularity, and 
might saturate the whole from top to bottom. The quantity 
conveyed to it he estimates at about eight hundred gallons ; 
but as this calculation was founded partly on conjecture, for 
he measured not the liquor, it will be better and more in- 
structive to furnish and proceed on data that are certain and 
incontrovertible. The urine was supplied by fourteen cattle, 
weighing about thirty-four stone [four hundred ana seventy- 
six pounds] each, and kept there for five months on fodder 
and turnips. The contents of the pit produced two hundred 
and eighty-eight loads, allowing two cubic yards to be taken 
out in three carts ; and he spread forty of these on each acre, 
so that this urine in fiv^e months, and from fourteen cattle, 
produced a compost sufficient for the fertilization of seven 
acres of land. He states farther, that he had tried this e:ipe- 
riment fur ten years, and had indiscriminately used in the 
same field either the rotted cow-dung or the saturated earth; 
and in all stages of the crop, he had never been able to find 
any perceptible difference. But what is still more wonder- 
ful, he found his compost lasted in its effects as many years 
as his best putrescent manure ; and he therefore boldly avers, 
that a load of each is of equivalent value. 

' It appears, then, that in five months each cow discharges 
urine which, when absorbed by loam, furnishes manure of 
the richest quality and most durable effects for half an acre 
of ground. The dung-pit, which contained all the excre- 
mentitious matter of the fourteen cattle, as well as the litter 
eiTiployed in bedding them, and which was kept separate for 
the purpose of the experiment, only furnished, during the 
same period, two hundred and forty loads, and these, at the 
same rate, could only manure six acres. The aggregate 
value of the urine, therefore, when compared with that of the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 185 

dung, was in the ratio of seven to six ; so that we are borne 
out by these premises in this extraordinary inference, that 
the putrescible liquor, which in this province, [Nova Scotia,] 
and under the management of our farmers, is wasted and 
annihilated as far as regards any useful purposes, is intrinsi- 
cally worth more than the dung, as an efficacious and per- 
manent dressing ; and if we take into consideration that this 
latter manure is not treated with any skill and judgment, it 
will not seem surprising, that the culture of white crops has 
never been carried here to any extent, since we have despised 
and neglected the only means of creating them.'^ 

We apprehend that the farmers of the United States are 
not, generally speaking, any more solicitous to turn the 
urine cf their cattle to account for manure, than those of 
Nova Scotia. There are some cultivators, however, who 
have taken measures to secure this substance, and to apply 
it to useful purposes. Mr. Robert Smith, of Baltimore, has 
his stables constructed in such a manner that all the liquid 
discharges of his cattle are conducted, together with the 
wash of the barn-yard, into a cistern, pumped into a hogs- 
head, and applied in a liquid state to the soil which it is 
wished to manure.! This mode of making use of this sub- 
stance is likewise recommended in the Code of Agriculture^ 
as follows : ' The advantages of irrigating grass lands with 
cow urine almost exceed belief. Mr. Harley, of Glasgow, 
(who keeps a large dairy in that town,) by using cow urine, 
cuts some small fields of grass six times, and the average of 
each cutting is fifteen inches in length. There are disad- 
vantages, however, attending this mode of applying this 
po«3rful manure. It must be applied soon after it is formed, 
or oftentimes the putrefactive process will commence, and 
deprive it of a part of its efficacy. And as urine is of a 
scorching quality, it is unsafe to apply it to growing crops 
in great heat or drought. Hence it is unadvisable to use it, 
except for grass, after the month of April or May, unless 
diluted. It is particularly useful in the spring, when the 
application of liquid manure gives a new impetus to the 
plant, and makes its growth more vigorous. This manure 
forces newly planted cabbages in a most remarkable manner.' 

If it be true that more manure can be obtained from the 
stale of cattle than from their dung and litter, in the propor- 
tion of seven to six, (as would seem by Mr. Alexander's ex- 

* Letters of Agricola. f See N. E. Farmer, vol. i. No. 6. p. 44. 
16# 



186 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

periments as above detailed,) and that by our common modes 
of husbandry this stale is nearly or qui^^e squandered away, 
the discovery is of very great importance indeed to agricul- 
ture. It is nothing less than a method by which farmers may, 
with a small expense, somewhat more than double their usual 
quantity of stable manure. And if farmers should ' value 
manure as a miser does his strong box, should grasp after 
and hoard it as eagerly and anxiously as a covetous man 
accumulates treasure,'^ surely the wise cultivator will not 
grudge »ome labor and expense to acquire more than double 
the usual quantity of so valuable an article- It is very true 
there are many things to be taken into consideration in all 
these economical processes. A principal inquiry should ever 
be, whether the saving will cost more than the benefit arising 
from it will be worth. Many improvements which are high- 
ly valuable in old and populous countries, w^here labor is 
cheap and land dear, cannot be advantageously adopted in 
this country, where the object, in general, is rather to make 
the most of our labor than of our land. It is to be recollect- 
ed, likewise, that in New England, during a considerable 
part of the time in which cattle are usually housed, the liquid 
manure is soon converted into ice, and in that state must be 
transferred to the dung-heap, or inconvenient accumulations 
will take place before a thaw would render it practicable to 
separate the liquid from the solid parts of the manure. Still, 
with all these disadvantages, we believe, in most cases, it is 
highly advisable to preserve the liquid portion of stable ma- 
nure separate from the solid part ; especially where cattle 
are soiled or horses stabled during all or the greater part of 
the year. 

Manure for Grass Grounds, Top-dressings, <^c. An in- 
telligent and scientific cultivator has given the following 
directions on this subject. 

There is scarcely any question on which farmers are 
more divided than as to the policy of applying manure as a 
top-dressing to grass lands, in the spring or fall. The rea- 
soning seems to be in favor of spring dressing, and it is sup- 
ported by many excellent names. But it ought to be known, 
that intelligent farmers near the metropolis most generally 
dress their lands in autumn. Besides the reason stated 
above, that grass lands are less injured by carting over them 

* These expressions, we believe, belong to the Hon. Mr. Peters, of 
Pennsylvania; but we do not recollect where we found tliem. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 187 

jn the fall, it may be added, that it is a season of greater 
leisure ; and although it is confidently asserted, that the 
manure is wasted by rains and snows, yet much ought to be 
allowed on the other side for the protection afforded by the 
top-dressing to the tender roots of the plants during winter ; 
and ought we not to add something for the low temperature 
of the atmosphere in winter, which prevents evaporation? 
whatever principles of fertility exist in manure, are in win- 
ter carried down into the soil. We are fully convinced that 
a scorching sun and drying air are more pernicious to ma- 
nures spread thinly over the surface than any drenching 
rains can be, unless on declivities, where top-dressings are un- 
questionably of less value than on level grounds. The fact 
that farmers who grow rich by supplying the great towns 
with hay generally adopt the practice of fall dressing their 
grass lands, deserves weight. 

Top-dressing should not be used in the fall for winter 
grain, because they would be apt to make the young plants 
come forward too fast and grow so rank that they would be 
liable to be winter-killed. Top-dressing foi wheat, rye, &-c. 
should be applied to the growing crop in the spring or early 
in the summer, when it is suspected that the land is not rich 
enough to bring a full crop to perfection. 

With regard to the materials for dressing your grass 
grounds, after your garden is supplied with mpnure, you may 
as well cart on to your mowing land all that you can collect 
from your barn-yards, your stercoraries or dung-heaps, hog- 
pens, compost beds, night soil, &;c. &c. &c. All sorts of 
dung, however, before being applied to grass land, should be 
well mixed with loam, sand, or some kind of earth which 
will imbibe the gas or effluvia of the dung or putrescent 
manure. We have said before, in substance, that all kinds 
of putrescent manure (that is, those animal or vegetable 
substances which are liable to putrefy, mould, and be wasted 
when exposed to the sun and air) are in a great measure 
thrown away, if applied to the surface of the soil before 
being made into compost.^ ' Spreading putrescent sub- 
stances upon the surface of a field of grass ground, is to ma- 
nure not the soil, but the atmosphere ; and is justly con- 
demned as the most injudicious plan that can be devised in 
an arable district.'! If dung not made into compost nor 

* New England Farmer, vol. i. p. 321. f Code of Agriculture. 



188 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

mixed with earth or any substance which will attract and 
imbibe its gas, effluvia, volatile products, or (to be more plain) 
that which causes it to smell unpleasantly, be applied to 
a field of plough land, it ought to be spread evenly and 
ploughed, or at lea >t harrowed in immediately. If a farmer's 
chief dependence is in grazing land, and he has dung, or pu- 
trescent manure not made into compost, to apply, we would 
suggest it for his consideration whether it might not be well, 
first to spread his dung as evenly as possible over his field, 
and then spread over the whole at least an equal quantity of 
good eprth or loam. By such means a compost is made in 
th3 field after the putrescent manure ib applied, and the earth 
or loam spread over the dung will not only absorb its gase- 
ous products, but in a great measure protect it from being 
dried by the air or scorched by the sun, till its fertilizing 
quanties are dissipated. This metnod of managing with top- 
dressing for grass land, however, we should suggest merely 
as an expedient for the saving of labor in cases where far- 
meis have much dung, but little plough land in proportion, 
and with whom the saving of labor is a very great object. 
As a general rule, the following maxim of Sir John Sinclair 
will apply as well in this country as in Great Britain. 
' There are strong objections to the application of dung to 
grass lands ; (much of its strength being evaporated, from its 
being exposed to atmospheric influence ;) composts are greatly 
to be preferred. They may be applied at the rate of from 
thirty to forty cubic yards per acre. To keep grass land in 
good condition, a dressing to this amount is required every 
four years. The application of unmixed putrescent manure 
will thus be rendered unnecessary.' 

The mode in which some farmers manage with regard to 
manuring their grass lands is not only absurd, but ruinous. 
Early in the fall they cart their dung from their barn-yards 
and sties, which perhaps had been a year or more accumulat- 
ing, and of course is finely pulverized and ready to take 
the win2fs of every breeze. They place it on a tough sward 
in little heaps about the size of a two bushel basket. The 
sun, high winds, rain, and drying atmosphere, all conspire to 
rob these little heaps of nearly all their fertilizing qualities, 
and leave little but a dead mass of matter as 'dry as a husk.' 
Late in the spring, and generally during or just before a dry 
time, Mr. Cultivator spreads these little heaps (reduced by 
exposure to wind and weather to about the size of a half 
bushel measure) over the sward. If the season proves dry, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 189 

the manure, particularly that part which was collected from 
the sty, has scarcely any other effect than to assist the sun 
in scorching the grass. In the mean time the arable land, 
being left destitute of manure for the sake of dunging the 
grass 2fround, yields not half a crop. The poor farmer be- 
lieves his land worn out, and thinks it high time to ' pk.cK 
up stakes and be off to the Ohio !' 

Unless you have plenty of manure, you had better not ap- 
ply any dung to your hi^h, gravelly, or sandy soils, but dress 
them with plaster of Paris. Uneven grass grounds will not 
admit of top-dressing to any advantage, on account of the 
manure's being liable to be washed away. 

Previous to manuring your grass lands, it will be well to 
harrow or scarify them. ' Rolling was formerly considered 
to be indispensable in the management of grass lands, tending 
to smooth and consolidate the surface, to prrevent the for- 
mation of ant-hills, and to render the effects of drought less 
pernicious. But scarifying the turf with a plough, consist- 
ing only of coulters, or with a harrow so that the whole sur- 
face may be cut or torn, is to be recommended when the 
pastures [or mowing land] are hidebound. That tenacious 
state rolling tends to increase; whereas by scarifying the 
surface is loosened, and the roots acquire new means of im- 
proved vegetation. This operation seems particularly use- 
ful when it precedes the manuring of grass lands ; for if 
well scarified, the ground is so opened, that any manure 
spread upon it gets at once to the roots ; consequently a small 
quantity thus applied, goes as far as a larger one laid on in 
the old mode, and without such an operation. Thus the 
force of the objections to the application of putrescent ma- 
nure to g-rass lands is in some desrree obviated.'^ After 
such process it may be well to sow grass seeds, to produce 
a new set of plants, and supersede the necessity of breaking 
up the soil to prevent its being ' hound out^'' as the phrase is. 

It is a bad practice to feed your mowing land very closely 
in the fall. There should be enough of the after grass left 
to protect the roots of the grass against the frosts of winter. 
We have known good farmers who would not sufTer their 
mowing land to be pastured pt any time of the year. But 
if the soil be well dressed with manure it can do but little 
or any injury to pasture it in the fore part of autumn, taking 

* Code of Agriculture. 



190 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

care not to let cattle run upon it when wet, and so soft that 
they wouM make much impression on it with their feet. 

Manure from Swine. Very valuable manure, with a little 
attention, maybe obtained from swine by n.ethods similar to 
that described by a writer for the New England Farmer, vol. 
ii. p. 178, as follows : 

I usuaLy keep and fatten four hogs in a year. These I 
keep confined in a yard twenty feet square, with a warm and 
convenient shed attached thereto as a shelter for them during 
the night time and in cold and stormy weather. Into their 
yard I put the scrapings of ditches, the dirt which is con- 
tinually collecting in and about the dwelling-house and other 
buildings, together with the straw with which they are lit- 
tered, frequently clearing it out of their house aiid granting 
them a fresh supply. During the summer season I often 
throw in large quantities of weeds, brakes, and other rubbish 
that may come to hand, which helps to increase both the 
quantity and quality of the manure. In this way I make 
from twenty-five to thirty loads of manure in a year, which 
answers a more valuable purpose than that which I take from 
the stable or barn-yard. 

The last spring I planted a field containing two acres with 
corn. One-half of the piece was manured in the hill with 
ten loads from the hogpen, the other half with the same 
quantity of the best manure the barn-yard afforded. 

A visible difference was to be seen in the growth of the 
corn through the season, and at the time of harvest the dif- 
ference was still more discernible. That part manured from 
the hogpen produced ears generally much larger than that 
manured from the barn-yard, a great proportion of the stalks 
bearing two, and many of them three ears each. 

Having harvested and measured my Corn, I found the result 
to be as fjllows : the produce of the part manured from the 
hogpen fifty bushels, while that of the other part was but 
forty-two bushels, making a difference of eight bushels in fa- 
vor of the former. 

I have lately taken twenty-eight loads of strong manure 
from my hog-yard which has been collected the past year, 
and which will be a sufficient quantity to manure two and 
a half acres in the hill ; and should the difference be as great 
in its favor the next as it has been this year, the extra pro- 
duce will more than repay the whole expense of making the 
manure. 

Manures may be divided into two classes. The one is 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 191 

called animal and vegetable or putrescent manures. They 
consist of decayed and decaying animal and vegetable sub- 
stances. The other class is denominated fossil manures. 
The last mentioned do not properly constitute the food of 
plants, although they enter into the composition of vej^e ta- 
bles in minute quantities. Fossil manures stimulate plants, 
and cause them to take their food faster than they otherwise 
would. They are like what medical men call condiments, 
and answer the same purpose as respects the economy of 
vegetable's which salt, pepper, spices, &c. effect as regards 
the animal economy. 

The principal fossil manures are limcj gypsum, and marl. 
We shall inake a few observations on each. 

1. Advantages of Lime. Though there are exceptions to 
the rule, yet, in general, it may be confidently asserted, that, 
unless where a soil has by nature enough of calcareous 
matter in its composition for the purposes of vegetation, it 
can neither be brought into its most fertile states, nor will 
other manures be so useful as they ought, if lime or some 
other calcareous earth be nr t previously applied. By lime 
spi-ead upon a moory soil, good herbage is produced whese 
nothing but heath and unpalatable grasses gi'ew before. By 
the same means, grass lands, instead of yielding nothing but 
bent, and other inferior grasses, have been covered with those 
of a more valuable description. The utility of lime to tur- 
nips is so great, that, though in the same field, where no 
lime had been applied the crop died away, yet in tne limed 
part the turnips flourished with unabated vigor. On the 
Mendip lands in Somerset, by the application of lime, the 
value of land was raised from four shillings to thirty shillings 
per acre ; and dung, which previous to liming had no sensi- 
ble effect, operated after its application as on other lands. 
Macclesfield forest in Cheshire, and vast tracts in the north- 
ern and more elevated parts of Derbyshire and adjacent dis- 
tricts, have been astonishingly improved by the same means. 
The rye lands of Herefordshire in 1636 refused to produce 
wheat, peas, or vetches ; but since the introduction of lime, 
they have been so fertilized, as to be successfully applied to 
the growth of every species of corn. In maiden soils of a 
tolerable quality, the richest manure will not enable them 
to bring any crops, but those of oats or rye, to maturity ; 
whereas, if they receive a sufficient quantity of lime, crops 
of peas, barley, or wheat, may be raised to advantage. The 
benefit resulting from the use of lime has been indisputably 



192 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

proved in the same farm ; for the richer parts that were left 
unlimed were uniformly inferior in produce to the poorer 
that had been limed, during a period of not less than twenty- 
one years, under the same course of management. 

2. The principles on which lime operates as a manure. 
Quicklime in powder, or dissolved in water, is injurious to 
plants ; hence grass watered with lime-water is destroyed. 
But lime freshly burnt, or slacked, forms a compost with 
vegetable matter, which is soluble in water, and nutritive to 
plants. Mild lime (as chalk, or quicklime again impregnat- 
ed with carbonic acid) chiefly operates by improving the 
texture of the soil and its relation to absorption. 

3. The various sorts of Limestone. Sometimes limestone 
is almost perfectly pure, as is the case with marble, which 
frequently contains scarcely any other substance but calcare- 
ous matter. Several sorts of limestone, however, have mix- 
tures of clay and sand, in various proportions, by which the 
efficacy of the manure, in proportion to the quantity of these 
substances, is considerably diminished. It is necessary, 
therefore, to analyze limestone, to ascertain the proportion 
of pure lime, before it is advisable to use so expensive an ar- 
ticle in great quantities, more especially if it must be con- 
veyed from a distance. Bituminous limestone makes good 
manure. But the magnesian is the species which requires 
the greatest attention. Limestone sometimes contains from 
20.3 to 23.5 of magnesia, in which case it would be injurious 
to weak soils to apply more than from twenty-five to thirty 
bushels per statute acre, though in rich soils double that 
quantity may be used, and still more with peat, on which 
soil it Avould have a most powerful effect in producing fer- 
tility. 

4. Mode of preparing it for use. Limestone is burnt in 
kilns of various constructions. It is applied with advantage 
to soils recently reclaimed in a caustic state ; but is gene- 
rally slacked, by throwing water upon the lumps, until they 
crack and swell, and fall down into a fine powder. This 
operation, when it is to be done, should not be delayed ; for 
if properly burnt, calcined lime is easily reduced into a fine 
powder, which may not be the case if the slacking be post- 
poned. If water cannot easily be obtained, the lumps may 
either be divided into small heaps and covered with earth, 
by the moisture of which they are soon pulverized, or made 
into large heaps, the lumps and earth six inches thick, and 
the whole covered with earth. Where it can easily be had, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 193 

it is a great advantage to slack the calcined limestone for ma- 
nure with sea-water or urine. When applied to land in a pow- 
dery state, lime tends to bring any hard vegetable matter that 
the soil contains into a more rapid state of decomposition 
and solution, so as to render it a proper food for plants. 

5. Application. Summer is the proper season for liming 
land. That experienced farmer, Mr. Kennie of Phanlassie, 
is of opinion, that the most profitable period for applying 
lime is when the land is under summer fallow, in the months 
of June and July, that it may be completely mixed with the 
soil before the crop is sown. This is also the general prac- 
tice in other districts. For a turnip crop, it should be laid 
on early in the spring before the turnips are drilled, in order 
that the lime may be thoroughly incorporated with the soil, 
by the ploughinjrs and harrowings it will receive ; the land 
will thus have time to cool, and the lime will not dry up 
the moisture necessary for bringing the turnips into leaf. 
For \ otatoes, lime is not to be recommended, as it is apt to 
burn and blister their skins. When applied to old ley, it is 
a good practice to spread it on the surface previously to the 
land being broken up, by which it is fixed firmly on the 
sward. One year has been found of use ; but when done 
three years before, it had produced still greater advantages; 
in the former case, the increase of oats being only at the rate 
of six to one, and in the latter, that of ten to one of the seed 
sown. The quantity applied nmst vary according to the 
soil. From two hundred and forty to three hundred bushels 
of unslacked lime may be applied on strong lands with ad- 
vantage. Even six hundied bushels ha/e been laid on at 
once, on strong clays, with great success. On light soils, a 
much smaller quantity will answer, say from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred bushels; but these small doses 
ought to be more frequently repeated. W^hen applied on 
the surface of bogs or moors, the quantity used is \ 3ry con- 
siderable, and the more that is laid on, the greater the im- 
provement. The real quantity, however, of calcareous mat- 
ter used, depends upon the quality of the stone. It often 
happens, that five chaldrons do not furnish more effective ma'- 
nure than three, because they do not contain three-fifths of 
calcareous matter. 

6. Effects of Lime. Many farmers have subjected them- 
selves to an expense at the rate of ten shillings per acre per 
annum for the lime they used, and have been amply remu- 
nerated. The benefit derived in the cultivation of green 

17 



194 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

crops is sufficient for that purpose. Such crops may be 
raised by large quantities of dung ; but where calcareous 
substances are applied, it is proved, by long experience, that 
a less quantity of animal and vegetable manure will answer 
the purpose. This is making the farm-yard dung go farther, 
with more powerful and more permanent effects ; and from 
the weightier crops thus raised, the quantity of manure on a 
farm will be most materially augmented. Indeed, upon land 
in a proper state for calcareous application, (as old ley,) lime 
is much superior to dung. Its effects continue for a longer 
period, while the crops produced are of a superior quality, 
and less susceptible of injury from the excesses of drought 
and moisture. The ground likewise, more especially if it 
be of a strong nature, is much more easily wrought ; and, in 
some instances, the saving of labor alone would be sufficient 
to induce a farmer to lime his land, were no greater benefit 
derived from the application than the opportunity thereby 
gained of working it in a more perfect manner. 

7. Rules for the management of Lime. 1. It is necessary 
to ascertain the qualitj'- of the soil to which lime is proposed 
to be applied ; and whether it has formerly been limed ; and 
to what extent. In general it may be observed, that strong 
loams and stubborn clays require a full dose to bring them 
into action, as such soils are capable of absorbing a great 
quantity of calcareous matter. Lighter soils, however, re- 
quire less lime to stimulate them ; and may be injured by 
administering a quantity of lime recently calcined, that would 
prove moderately beneficial to those of a heavy nature. 2. 
As the effects of lime greatly depend on its intimate admix- 
ture with the surface soils, it is expedient to have it in a 
powdered state before it is applied, and the drier and the 
more perfectly powdered the better. 3. Lime having a ten- 
dency to sink in the soil, it cannot be ploughed in with too 
shallow z. furrow, or kept too near the surface. 4. Lime 
ought not to be applied a second time to weak or poor soils, 
unless mixed with a compost ; after which the land should 
be immediately laid down to grass. "^ 

The following, on the ' Stimulation of Soils,' was written 
by the Hon. John Welles, of Boston, and published in the 
New England Farmer, vol, xi. p. 217. 

'From a frequent perusal of the benefits derived from lime 
in its application to soil in Europe, I have been induced for 

* Encyclopedia of Agriculture. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST 195 

more than a score of years, successively, to make use of it 
for agricultural purposes to the extent of more than one 
hundred casks annually. 

' One of my first experiments arose from a desire to give a 
top-diessing to a piece of land, which it was otherwise in- 
convenient to do. The soil was a heavy black loam. Hav- 
ing a quantity of black earth from a trench, (or top stratum,) 
I procured a quantity of lime. A bottom of four or five buck 
loads of earth was first placed ; then a couple of casks of 
lime were spread thereon ; then earth and lime again, till 
my materials were used, or the quantity needed was had, at 
the rate of eight or ten casks to the acre ; thus a cask be- 
ing supposed to produce about five bushels of slacked lime, 
the cost of which, if the casks are swelled and the lime partly 
slacked, is eight to ten cents a bushel. This is the most 
moderate application in Europe, and the cost is about the 
same. 

' This mixture, after lying tw^elve or fourteen days, was 
shovelled over, and after some days being found fine and well 
mixed, was spread from the cart on the ground. To my 
surprise I found the effect produced to be equal to what is 
usual from common compost manure ! 

' In England, where lime is most used for agricultural 
purposes, it is considered that in its crude state, or uncal- 
cined state, it is most beneficial, if pounded or made fine. 
This, where limestone abounds, it is well to know; but there 
is little of it in this neighborhood. Encouraged by this 
experiment, I continued to purchase and apply considera- 
able quantities of damaged and air-slacked lime^ in my cul- 
tivation, particularly for a low, flat piece of land. This be- 
ing intersected with small ditches, furnished the earth. I 
was not able otherwise to procure to mix with the lime. It 
is not well, however, in such cases, to lower the surface by 
taking off more than will keep the ditches open. When the 
earth is tough with sward, &c., it may be made finer by being 
carted out and put in heaps on the ground, and spread after- 
wards. Indeed this is done to great advantage in the winter; 
the poaching the land, or making a rough surface for the 
scythe, being then well avoided. 

' As this land cannot advantageously be ploughed, I have, 
in applying every third year a top-dressing, as my custom is, 

* Lime long exposed to the air, such as sweepings of stores, &c., is of 
less value and more cheaply obtained. 



196 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

alternated, giving first a dressing of earth and lime, and at 
the expiration of three years, a coat of compost maaure. 

' This has been done on the principle that a more judi- 
cious mixture would be made, and a better composi *on of 
soil be had. 1 have been guided herein from general rea- 
soning, not from any proof that the lime might not be re- 
peated. 

' It seems, however, to be a prevailing opinion, where 
lime has been most in use, that it opens the sod and makes 
it more porous, giving thereby a better action to other ma- 
nures, which a judicious husbandry should in succession ap- 
ply. In this application of lime to a grass sward, in a deep 
springy soil, I have been for a long time well satisfied. It 
was several years before I undertook the same practice on a 
light soil, and I did it with less expectation. But I was 
somewhat surprised to find it equally beneficial. 

' So far lime has been mentioned as a component article in 
top-dressing for a green sward. Its effect will be shown on 
ploughed land, and in a grain crop. 

' With a view of increasing fertility, I frequently have ap- 
plied on the side of the hills of Indian corn a small handful 
of slacked lime. I so placed it, lest the caustic quality of 
the lime should prove injurious to the tender plant when it 
first started from the soil. This is my opinion and practice; 
though I have often since seen large pieces slacken and ex- 
pand on the soil without injury to the grass, which in a 
lively green color pierced through it. This application of 
lime to the hill I continued for some time, and though small 
in quantity or effect, I still thought it of some advantage. I 
was led, however, to a more extensive and satisfactory expe- 
riment. 

' I had a piece of ground of about four acres, of rather 
light soil, which gave promise of a very small crop of grass. 
Being without the means of obtaining manure, as I nad a 
quantity of earth of the top stratum, taken up on building a 
wall, I forthwith procured a quantity of lime and mixed it in 
the manner before mentioned. About the middle of June 
I had the grass mowed and the land ploughed. The lime 
compost was then spread and lightly harrowed in. \n early 
sort of yellow corn, which when ripe husked itself, vias pro- 
cured. And my neighbors, who knew the process, were, in 
the fall of the year, much surprised by the stout ears of 
golden grain thus unfolded to view ! 

' I trust enough has been said to show the beneficial use 



/ 

AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 197 

of lime. Whether it acts on the atmosphere only, or as a 
stimulant to the soil, or actually contains (as is strongly 
maintained by some) within itself the food for plants, is well 
worthy of discussion. 

' But whether either of these causes separately or they 
altogether conduce to the nutrition of plants, an advantage- 
ous effect of the use of lime on soil seems conclusively to 
follow. I have endeavored to avoid nice discriminations and 
have stated my practice plainly, not from its novelty to many 
of your readers, but because not only a great waste is made 
of this article, but it is believed that as its average price in 
good condition, about ten cents, it may be used to good ad- 
vantage. So also it is with mortar, rubbish of walls and 
chimneys, plaster, &c., from old buildings. These (and it is 
somewhat relative to this discussion) I have made use of as a 
top-dressing to low soil to very good effect. 

' It has been observed that if lime is a fertilizer of soil, why 
is it that where it abounds and often forms an under stratum 
a greater fertility does not prevail ? To this it may be an- 
swered that lime is a constituent principle, it is believed, in 
all soil, and may be supplied, where from experience a defi- 
ciency is found. But when it superabounds, as in most other 
things, excess may be injurious. In all this more experience 
is wished for as the only safe and profitable guide.' 

The following is extracted from a letter from Daniel Buck- 
ley, Esq., of Salisbury, Pennsylvania, to J. Buel, Esq., pub- 
lished in Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture, 
vol. iii. p. 124. 

' The land which I cultivate, according to M'C lure's trea- 
tise, is transition, composed of white and yellow clay and 
limestone, much of the latter appearing on the surface, in- 
termixed with flint. Upon this soil I have made a liberal 
use of lime, ever since the year 1790, and think I have been 
well rewarded for the expense and labor, by the increased 
value of my crops. 

'The method of applying the lime which I have adopted 
in common with my neighbors is, in the first place, to plough 
up a sod field with a strong team, in the spring or fall; 
harrow it the way it is ploughed, and mark the field into as 
many squares as you intend to put on half-bushels, say one 
hundred on the acre, which will bring the furrows about 
twenty feet apart each way, and require fifty bushels to the 
acre. This quantity I have found to be most profitable. 
When the lime is burnt, and as soon as it is cool enough to 
17# 



198 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

handle, it ought to be hauled on the land already marked, 
and a half-bushel deposited in the centre of each square, in 
as compact a heap as possible. If water is convenient, I 
prefer to slack the lime immediately, rather than to wl'A for 
rain, as it becomes finer and can be more evenly sjiread. As 
soon as it has slacked, it is immediately spread and well har- 
rowed. This method I prefer for Lidian corn, barley, oats, 
rye, and potatoes. On all the above crops I have experienced 
a great benefit from lime the first year after its application. 
With potatoes I add about fifteen two-horse loads of barn- 
yard manure to the acre, before planting. A second liming 
is often given, and much approved of, after an interval of 
three or more years. This amalgamates better, and can be 
more intimately mixed with the soil. 

' There are good farmers who differ as to the quantity of 
lime that is most profitably applied; some say sixty bushels on 
the acre, some seventy, and some more. I have applied one 
hundred o.i an acre of limestone land, at a dressing ; but 
have not been able to discover any benefit from using it thus 
freely, nor any injury except in the loss of lime. 

' Wheat seldom receives any benefit from lime until the 
second or third year after it has been applied, except it has 
been mixed in a compost of yard manure and earth. This 
method is much practised in the lower counties of this state; 
though not by good farmers until they have applied lime as 
the basis of melioration. By this management they have 
raised their lands from an impoverished state, produced by 
injudicious cropping, to such a state of fertility, as, I am in- 
formed, to enable them to fatten a bullock of six hundred 
weight on an acre, and to cut grass from the same acre suffi- 
cient to winter another. 

' Sandy soils are greatly improved by the use of lim.e. I 
lately purchased some of that kind, which was originally 
covered with chestnut timber, and was called mountain land. 
It has been cleared seventy years ; but lying a distance frc.n 
the farm buildings, had never received any manure but a 
dressing of lime. This land 1 have had repeatedly farmed 
since I owned it ; and although to appearance it seemed to 
be almost a caput rriortuum, with the aid of ten or twelve 
four-horse loads of the gleanings of a yard of a public house, 
it has produced as much, and as good, wheat, rye, oats, timo- 
thy, and clover to the acre, as any land in the township in 
which it lays. I consider the liming which it had fifty years 
ago as the principal cause of its fertility. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 199 

It is a general opinion amongst good farmers, that liming 
should be repeated every ten or fifteen years, and that the 
increased crops richly compensate the expense. Tf matters 
very little how it is applied, provided it is ev^enly spread im- 
mediately after it is slacked. If suffered to air-slack, or to 
lie after it has been water-slacked, it re-imbibes carbonic 
acid, which the fire had expelled, becomes lumpy, and is 
more difficult to be incorporated with the soil. Some spread 
it upon the sod and plough it under, and think they have as 
much profit from it in this way as in any other. When thus 
applied, it powerfully contributes to decompose the tougher 
fibres of the sod, and to convert them into nutriment for the 
crop.' 

Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris. It is said that the pro- 
perties of gypsum as a manure were first discovered in Ger- 
many by a laborer at a quarry of that substance. In passing 
across a meadow to shorten the distance home, he observed 
the luxuriance of the grass where he had walked, and sup- 
posing it to be caused by the dust of the gypsum from his feet 
and clothes, made experiments, which verified his supposition. 

Great differences exist among agriculturists respecting the 
uses of gypsum and the manner of its operation. Some 
have supposed that its efficiency as a manure is altogether 
owing to its power of attracting njoisture from the air. But 
Sir Humphrey Davy expressed an opinion, that but little 
effect can be produced by such attraction. ' When com- 
bined with water,' he observed, ' it retains that fluid too 
powerfully to yield it to the roots of the plant, and its ad- 
hesive attraction for moisture is inconsiderable ; «ie small 
quantity in which it is used likevi^ise is a circumstance un- 
favorable to this idea.' Some have supposed that gypsum 
assists in the putrefaction of animal substances, and the de- 
composition of the manure in the soil. This philosopher, 
however, proved by repeated experiments, that it rather re- 
tards than accelerates putrefaction. He likewise says, 'In 
examining the ashes of sainfoin, clover, and rye grass, I 
found that they afforded considerable quantities of gypsum; 
and this substance probably is intimately combined as a ne- 
cessary part of the woody fibre. If this be allowed, it is 
easy to explain why it operates in such small quantities ; 
for the whole of a clover crop, or sainfoin crop, on an acre, 
according to my estimation, would afford by incineration 
only three or four bushels of gypsum. The reason why 
gypsum is not generally more efficacious, is probably because 



200 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

that most cultivated soils contain it in sufficient quantities 
for the use of the grrasses. In the common course of culti- 
vation gypsum is furnished in the manure; for it is con- 
tamed in stable dung, and in the dung of cattle fed on grass. 
Lord Dundas informs me, that having tried gypsum without 
cay benefit on two of his estates in Yorkshire, he was in- 
duced to have the soil examined for gypsum, and this sub- 
stance was found in both soils. "^ 

It has been made a question whether burning and calcin- 
ing gypsum make any difference with regard to its fertilizing 
properties. This is said to be the practice among French 
cultivators, and was likewise recommended by Dr. Deane. 
But an English writer on agriculture observes that ' calcin- 
ing is not likely to make any difference, because the sulphu- 
ric acid in gypsum cannot be expelled by the most violent 
heat of the furnace ; and an experiment of Arthur Young 
countenances the assertion that the effects of gypsum are the 
same, whether calcined or rough.' 

Dr. Joseph E. Muse, of Maryland, in an essay on the sub- 
ject of gypsum, and its mode of operation, published in the 
American Farmer, vol. i. p. 338, gives it as his opinion 
* that the chief, if not the only cause of the efficacy of gyp- 
sum in promoting vegetation, is to be found in its tendency 
to become phosphoric, and produced many facts and deduc- 
tions therefrom, to show that gypsum by exposure to the at- 
mosphere becomes phosphoric ; and that phosphorus exists 
in vegetables. 

The late Dr. Gorham, in a paper read before a society in 
Boston, and published in the New England Farmer, vol. v. 
page 153, observed, ' When plaster of Paris is applied to the 
seed it stimulates the little root, the action of the vessels is 
thus increased, absorption goes on more rapidly, and it ac- 
quires more nourishment for a given time than in ordinary 
circumstances ; the consequences are a quick growth and 
enlargement of the organs.' 

Colonel Taylor, of Virginia, observed, in substance, that 
he sows of plaster from three pecks to one bushel to the 
acre. Sown on clover in the spring, it benefits it considera- 
bly. The best way of using it is in the spring upon the 
long manure of the preceding winter, to be ploughed in with 
it. He thinks it a valuable ally, but by no means a substi- 
tute for manure. That there should be intervals of two, 
three, or four years between applying it to the same land. 

* Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, lecture vii. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 201 

That its effect is graduated by the quantity of vegetable 
matter on which it is sown. That on closely grazed land it 
does little good at first, and repeated would become perni- 
cious ; and that it must be united either wnth long manure 
of the winter, or the ungrazed vegetable cover produced in 
the summer. That all crops are ultimately improved h} its 
improving the soil, even when its effects are not immediately 
visible; but he does not recommend it as a top-dressing, ex- 
cept for clover. 

M. CanoUe, a French writer, observes, that plaster, act- 
ing chietly on the absorbent system of plants, its effects are 
not like those of manure buried in the soil, which act prin- 
cipally on*th ^ roots. The latter, according to their particu- 
lar nature, divide, soften, enrich, warm or stiffen ihe sods 
with which they are mixed. The quantity of plaster spread 
upon the land is so trifling that it can have little effect on 
the soil. I speak from experience. Plaster buried in the 
earth where sainfoin has been sown, has produced little al- 
teration ; whilst the same quantity of plaster spread over the 
same surface of sainfoin has produced the most beautiful 
vegetation. 

' From this experience, so uniform in the application of 
plaster, I am led to believe, that one must consult as well 
the nature of the soil, as the kind of pkints to which we ?p- 
ply plaster. Thus, whatever may be the soil, on which clo- 
ver, lucerne, and sainfoin naturally flourish vigorously, or 
with that vigor which encourage us to apply manure, there 
is no risk in trying plaster. 

' It is to be remarked, that plaster operates on plants in a 
direct ratio to the size and number of their leaves. I have 
spread plaster on land where sainfoin was mixed with the 
common grasses which compose our meadows. The growth 
of the sainfoin and wild honey-suckle has been beyond com- 
parison greater than that of the common grasses. It is to 
this cause I attribute the failure of success on grass ground 
chiefly filled with common grasses. I have a field of lucerne 
separated from a natural meadow only by a brook. I have 
greatly increased the lucerne by the plaster, whilst the effect 
of a like quantity on the adjoining grass land w"as scarcely, 
if at all perceivable. 

It has been ascertained by repeated experiments that a 
liberal application of plaster to clover, at the time of turning 
it down and preparing for a wheat crop, is by far the most 
advantageous to the crop, and much preferable to turning in 



202 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

the clover in the usual way, and plastering on the surface. 
The action of the plaster, thus excluded from atmospheric 
air, upon the clover, covered over, is instantaneous, and the 
putridity is so certain as to cause considerable gas, which in 
its passage through the clod impregnates it with all its ma- 
nuring qualities, and the root of the plant shoots down and 
feeds on a bed of manure."^ 

A writer for the New England Farmer, vol. ii. p. 10, 
states in substance as results of his experience, that plaster 
was found by him to be useful as manure, after having been 
kept on hand in a box seven years ; that its beneficial effects 
on pasture land are very great. He sows it on the same 
piece of ground every second year, and thinks five or six 
pecks to an acre are sufficient ; that his pasturing is essen- 
tially improved by that application, producing nearly double 
the quantity of food which it formerly did ; that sowing 
plaster on his grazing land had a tendency to destroy the 
bushes, by giving increased luxuriance to the grass ; that this 
manure has been found very useful for flax and potatoes, &c. 

Dr. Cooper, editor of the last Philadelphia edition of 
Willich's Domestic Encyclopedia, says, ' Gypsum will not 
answer beyond two and a half bushels to the acre ; one and 
a half bushel is better. It will not answer on wet or 
swampy, or clayey soils. It should be scattered over the 
ground as a top-dressing. Suppose you were asked if a 
stone brought you is gypsum. 1. Gypsum can be scratched 
by the nail, scraped by a knife, ground by the teeth. 2. It 
will not dissolve in spirits of salt as limestone will : nor is 
it half so hard as limestone. 3. Its color and crystalline 
appearance distinguish it from clay ; nor does it give a clayey 
odor when breathed upon, unless clay be mixed with it. 4. 
Powder it, boil it to dryness, with four times its weight of 
pot or pearlash. Wash out all that the hot water will dis- 
solve ; the remaining powder (if the stone be gypsum) is car- 
bonate of lime.' 

Gypsum has been highly recommended as a manure for 
potatoes. The potatoes, just before planting, should be wet 
and rolled in pulverized plaster ; and a handful of plaster 
applied immediately after the first and second hoeing to the 
leaves, and scattered over the hill. 

A writer for the Genesee Farmer, with the signature 
Onondago, observes, ' Plaster is always to be sown on wheat 

* American Farmer. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 203 

unless the land is wanted for a spring crop the next year, 
after clover seed, at the rate of one, two, or even three 
bushels per acre. After harvest the young clover ought not 
to be pastured much, if a ij ; the next year the clover is 
suffered to grow as large as it can be and be well turned over, 
which is then done, the ground fallowed and the wheat sov/ii ; 
the next year sow the clover seed and plastf ", and so on 
from year to year ad infinitum, the land always getting better, 
as is supposed by those who practise this method. Plaster we 
think should be sown in pasture. An old farmer, and one 
who has proved his skill by making a fortune at the business, 
and who now tills nearly five hundred acres, told me that a 
ton cf plaster sown on ten acres of pasture would make it 
yield as much as fifteen acres under the like circumstances 
without plaster.' 

J. Spicer, in Goodsell's Farmer, says, ' When I apply 
plaster to corn, which I have done for nearly three years 
past, I mix it with one-half leached ashes, as they are leached 
for common family use ; put it in a cart and shovel and mix 
it well. I then put one gill to the hill immediately ifter the 
first hoeing, and the same thing over after the second hoe- 
ing. 1 have tried the same quantity of clear plaster, side 
and side, twic3, and find the mixture to produce the greatest 
effects.' 

The Hon. J. Lowell, in an article published in the New 
England Farmer, vol. v. p. 1, contradicts an idea which has 
been orenerally prevalent, that gypsum is of no use to lands 
near the sea-coast, and observes as follows : 

' I shall set out with the fact, that plaster has been used 
with success on lands on the sea-coast of France, where the 
south-west wind, the prevalent one in summer in that country, 
brings with it the ocean air : and in our country, in Massa- 
chusetts for example, the prevalent winds do not bring with 
them an atmosphere filled with saline particles. It cannot 
therefore be the vicinity to the sea which renders gypsum 
inert and inefficacious with us. The cause of its inefficacy 
near the sea-coast must therefore be sought for in something 
else ; in the nature of our soil, perhaps already sufficiently 
imbued with the constituent parts of gypsum, or in our more 
free use of stable manure, which furnishes the plants with all 
the food they require. 

' I have been in a constant and invariable course of ex- 
periments on plaster, and these are the results. It seems 
to be of no use, ever, to clover, on low meadow lands ; of no 



204 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

life to any plants on a good rich, well manured soil. But I 
have three decisive proofs of its utility on dry, hilly, gravelly 
soils. 

' The first I shall nnention was pn experiment made by the 
late P'LPH Smith, Esq., of Roxbury, on a lofty hill of old 
pasture land, he applied it for several years, and his own 
conviction was, and it was also the full conviction of many 
others, that it materially improved the condition of his pas- 
ture. It v^as green at an earlier period, and the white clover 
came into it more generally and luxuriantly than into other 
lands in the same situation. 

' Seven years bincc, I applied plaster to a newly laid down 
field of clover, one-half of which was a dry gravelly knoll, 
With very little vegetable soil. When it was fit for cutting, 
I showed it to the trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultr- 
ral society, and without pointing out to them the part to 
which the plaster had been applied, they at once, on sight 
of it, detected and pointed out the superiority of the crop 
on the part to which the gypsu..i had been applied ; and 
their designation agreed, by metes and bounds, with the 
stakes I had driven, indicating the part to which plaster had 
been applied, and which were then concealed by the grass. 
This superior crop was on a pure gravelly soil, far inferior to 
the rest, Avhich was a deep rich loam. 

' This year I had a piece of clover in its second year of 
growth. It was similarly situated. Two-thirds of it was a 
gravelly thin soil. I cut the whole on the 10th day of June. 
The gravelly part, owing to the drought, did not yield more 
than half a ton to the acre ; the rich p^rt an excellent crop. 
As soon as the hay was in, I gave a dressing of plaster to 
the gravelly knoll only, at the rate of three bushels to the acre. 

' The effect has been as great as has ever been represented 
to be produced by gypsum by persons in the interior. The 
second crop on the gravelly land is far superior to that on 
a rich and deep soil in the same field. It may be discovered 
at ten rods' distance ; and you can mark by your eyes pre- 
cisely the line of the ground to which the plaster was ap- 
plied. You, sir, have seen this spot of half an acre, and can 
testify whether its effects are not very obvious. I shall not 
cut it for some weeks, unless compelled to it by a second 
drought, and I invite farmers to see the effect of this experi- 
ment, not new, because it is but a repetition of an old one. 

' I am induced to lay this subject before the farmers of 
Norfolk, Bristol, Barnstable, and Essex, because I ain con- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 205 

vinced that the experiment of the use of gypsum in this 
quarter has not been fiiir and full. 

' It is of no service on lew lands, or on good land, nor of 
much use to any products except to clover and lucerne : but 
on sandy and gravelly soils, and applied to these plants, espe- 
cially in dry seasons, I am convinced it will prove valuable. 
I paid only four dollars for ten bushels, ground; and I appli- 
ed only sixty cents' worth to this land, and am convinced, 
that the plaster will increase the value of the second crop to 
five times the cost of the application.' 

A writer for the Genesee Farmer, with the signature V. 
W. S., recommends to sow plaster from the box of a wagon, 
driven slowly over the field in which it is to be distributed. 
He sovved'five and a half bushels of plaster over four acres 
of meadow in just an hour, and performed his work ivell; 
sowed the ground twice over, extending the cast each time 
to the track the wheels last made, by which the driver guided 
his c jurse across the lot. The writer recommends a windy 
day for his purpose, and believes a yoke of cattle might be 
preferable to a horse. 

'It will be readily perceived that while my mode of sow- 
ing plaster makes a great saving of manual strength, the 
great advantage derived from it is in the expedition with 
which the process is performed. One man and boy, in a one- 
horre cart, can dress from forty to sixty acres per day, thus 
making a very important saving of time at a season when 
the farmer is obliged to husband closely. The injury of 
driving a wagon over a field of grain would be but little, and 
could not be considered a moment, when compared with the 
value of the time gained. Let any farmer try it, and I am 
satisfied he will never sow plaster from a pail on foot again. 

' I would add here, that in sowing from a wagon it will be 
found necessary to stop occasionally, to pick up or loosen 
the plaster, which becomes compacted by its motion. The 
elevated position of the sower enables him to make a very 
broad cast, and if advantage is taken of the wind, he will 
be able to avoid the respiration of any great quantities of 
dust.' 

Marl consists of calcareous matter, clay, and sand, or 
some two of these earths, (of which lime or chalk is always 
one) in various proportions. The blue clay marl is free 
from sand. Clay marl is also sometimes of a yellowish 
white, yellowish gray, or a brown or red cast. The shell 
marl seldom contains clay. In schist us or stone marl, 
18 



206 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

sometimes sand and sometimes clay preponderates, general- 
ly the former. The sand marl, whether shell or schistus, 
should be applied to clays ; and clay marls to sands. In 
both cases they correct the defects of the soil, by rendering 
it, in the nrst, less adhesive ; and, in the latter, less open and 
porous. 

The earths are not the food of plants. They constitute 
the stomach, analogous to the stomach of animals, in which 
vegetable and animal matter is received, d'gested, and with 
the aid of the leaves [lungs] assimilated to vegetable chyle 
and blood. The best soil for this digestive process is that 
in which the three above-named earths are suitably blended. 

A sandy or gravelly soil is called hungry, because it digests 
rapidly, and dissipates the food committed to its bosom. 
Hence green crops, or frequent manurings, are necessary to 
continue it healthy and productive. Such soils are defec- 
tive in clay and calcareous matter. Their texture may 
therefore be improved, and their fertility increased, by the 
application of clay marl; or, what is the same, by clay and 
lime separately ; though these materials are found most pure 
and best blended in the substance of marl. The quantity 
should be proportioned to the natural deficiency of these 
materials in the soil. From eight to one hundred loads per 
acre have been applied in one or two dressings; and their 
beneficial effects have Deen known to continue thirty years. 
All the sand soils of Norfolk, England, have been marled, 
[clayed.] Calcareous matter, combined with sulphuric acid, 
[oil of vitriol] is usefully applied to soils in the form of gyp- 
sum, or plaster of Paris ; as is also powdered limestore and 
chalk, both calcareous. I am induced to believe that neither 
wheat nor sainfoin grass will thrive in a soil destitute of cal- 
careous matter, which is the condition with most of our sands. 

A stiff, moist clay, is called cold, and is unfriendly to the 
finer grasses as well as grains. Its texture is too compact 
to permit the roots to extend freely, and its temperature too 
cold to cairy on the digestive process sufficiently rapid for 
the plants which grow upon its surface. Sand and lime, or 
silicious marl, loosen its texture, render it permeable to 
heat, &c., and powerfully assist to concoct the food of vege- 
tables. 

Marl may be known by the most ordinary observer. The 
application of a mineral acid, and even of good vinegar, will 
cause an effervescence. This is the operation of the acid 
upon the lime. Its silicious and argillaceous properties may 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 207 

be ascertained by the sight and feeling, by the aid of water, 
or of glass. Sand subsides or settles quicker than clay in a 
liquid; and will scratch glass, which clay will not. 

It is a remarkable fact in the economy of nature, that the 
indigenous plants of every country are precisely those which 
are best adapted to furnish the proper sustenance to its ani- 
mal population, and to satisfy its medicinal wants. So in 
regard to our soils ; every district generally affords the means 
of producing fertility. Hence the clay marls generally un- 
derlay sands ; and shell and sand marls most abound in the 
neighborhood of clays. And in addition to the variety of 
fossil substances which are calculated to increase fertility, 
every thing that grows upon the earth, every particle of ani- 
mal and vegetable matter, is reduced to air and water by the 
chemical operations of nature, and in these forms become the 
food of new plants, to nourish animals. It is a truth calculat- 
ed to teach humility, that the animal, the vegetable, ;ind the 
putrid mass of dung, are found on chemical analysis to be 
very nearly alike, and that, in the natural order of things, 
they constantly nourish, feed, and produce each other. 
' Nothing is nourishment for a vegetable but what enters into 
the permanent composition of a vegetable. Nothing is nou- 
ris' iient for an animal but what was originally a vegetable.' 
Mali is enjoined to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. 
He finds the most noble incitements to duty scattered around 
him, and he is seldom disappointed in obtaining the rewards, 
competence and health, which industry promises to her vota- 
ries. But I have another remark to make as to the food of 
vegetables. How scrupulously careful is the farmer of his 
grain, hay, and roots, which are destined to nourish and fat- 
ten his animals; and yet how thoughtless and inattentive as 
to the food of his plants I Vegetable and animal substances 
are suffered to waste in his fields and yards, unmindful of the 
havoc which the rains, winds, and sun, are daily milking 
upon them; while a moiety of his fertilizing materials, the 
urine of his stock, is altogether lost. He will not suffer the 
flocks of his neighbors to rob his own of their food; yet he 
sees, with but feeble efforts to prevent it, his plants plundered 
by pestiferous weeds of the food which is essential to their 
health and vigor. 

' To find the composition of a marl, pour a few ounces of 
diluted muriatic acid into a Florence flask ; place them in a 
scale, and let them be balanced : then reduce a. few ounces 
of dry marl into pov/dcr ; and let this powder be carefully 



208 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

and gradually thrown into the flask, until, after repeated ad- 
ditions, no fartlier effervescence is perceived. Let the re- 
mainder of the pow^dcred marl be weighed, by which the 
quanlity projected will be known. Let the balance be then 
restored. The difference of weight betweej the quantity 
projected and that requisite to restore the balance, will show 
the weight of air lost daring effervescence. [That air pro- 
ceeds from the calcareous earth alone, which continns forty- 
four per cent, of this carbonic acid air. Suppose five hundred 
grains of marl lose forty-four grains by the escape of air, 
then that marl contained one hundred grains, or one-fifth of 
its whole weight, of limestone. — T. C] If the loss amount 
to twenty or twenty-five per cent, of the quantity cf marl 
projected, the marl assayed is calareous marl, or marl rich 
in calcareous earth. Clayey marls, or those in which the 
argillaceous ingredient prevails, lose only eight or ten per 
cent, of their weight by this treatment, and sandy marls 
about the same proportion. The presence of much argilla- 
ceous earth may be judged by drying the marl, after being 
washed with spirit of salt, when it will harden and form a 
brick. 

'To determine with still greater precision the quantity of 
calcareous earth in marl, let the solution in muriatic acid 
be filtered and mixed with a solution of carbonate of potash, 
till no farther precipitation appear. Let the sediment sub- 
side ; wash it well with water ; lay it on a filter, previously 
weighed, and dry it. The weight of the dry mass will show 
how much carbonate of lime the quantity of marl submit- 
ted to experiment contained. See Kirwan on Manures. 

' The quantity necessary to be used, varies according to 
the nature of the soil ; but the utmost caution is requisite, 
because if too large a portion be scattered on the land, it 
cannot be easily removed, and if too little be employed, the 
deficiency may be readily supplied. On sandy, gravelly, or 
light soils, it will be advisable to spread as much as will 
form a thick coat, in order to bind and stiffen the ground. 
But, of whatever nature the land may be, the most judicious 
cultivators recommend such a portion to be laid on it, as will 
form a thin coat over the whole surface. 

' The proper season for marling is the summer ; as this 
kind of manure is then perfectly dry, and not only lighter, 
but also more easily reduced to a powder. Marl, however, 
may be advantageously spread during the winter frosts ; as 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 209 

in the latter season, there are few opportunities of perform- 
ing other labors of the field. 

' Previously to marling, the land ought to be diligently 
cleared from all weeds, and rendered level, both with the 
brake and the common harrow, so that the marl may be 
equally spread on the surface, where it should be suffered to 
lie during the winter. In the month of February, [March, 
or April,] and in dry weather, it will be proper to draw a 
bush-harrow, well weighted, over the land, that the marl 
may be uniformly distributed; but, as this manure is very 
ponderous, and sinks to the bottom of the furrow, if injudi- 
ciously ploughed in, it has been suggested to turn it into an 
ebb-furrBw for the first crop : during the growth of the latter, 
the marl will incorporate with and become a part of the 
soil, from which it does not readily separate. So perma- 
nent, indeed, are its fertilizing properties, that if land be pro- 
perly marled, it will continue arable for the space of twelve 
or fourteen years ; and, for pasture, during a much longer 
period. 

' A good artificial marl may be prepared by mixing equal 
quantities of pure clay and lime, in alternate layers, so as to 
form a heap, which should be exposed to the winter frost : 
this compound is well calculated for light lands ; but if the 
soil be strong and heavy, it will be necessary to substitute 
loam and sand for the clay. Such compositions may be 
usefully employed where marl is not easily procured; as 
they will amply repay the labor bestowed on mixing them, 
being little inferior to the genuine calcareous earth.' — Domes- 
tic Encyclopedia. 

An English writer on agriculture observes that 'whoever 
finds marl finds a mine of great value. It is one of the best 
and most general manures in nature ; proper for all soils, 
and particularly so for clay.' It is usually found under 
moss or peat, in low sunken lands, and especially nigh the 
sea or large rivers. It has been sometimes discovered by 
ant-hills, as those insects bring up small pieces of shells from 
their holes. 

Peat is a w^ell known substance, used both for manure and 
for fuel. In its natural state peat is of but little or no ser- 
vice as manure, but by exposing it to the effects of fermenta- 
tion it becomes very useful as food for plants. In its unfer- 
mented state it contains a considerable quantity of tannin, 
which is a powerful astringent, resisting all approaches to 
putrefaction ; and is impregnated with acids injurious to 
18# 



210 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

vegetation, which can be expelled by fermentation with barn- 
yard manure, and other suitable substances. 

The following method of preparing peat for manure is 
extracted from a small treatise by lord Meadowbanks, which 
was printed and distributed gratis among the Scottish pea- 
santry, and has been highly approved of both by practical 
and scientific cultivators. 

' Let the peat-moss, of which compost is to be formed, be 
thrown out of the pit for some weeks or months, in order to 
lose its redundant moisture. By this means it is rendered 
the lighter to carry, and less compact and weighty, when 
made up with fresh dung for fermentation ; and accordingly, 
less dung is required for the purpose, than if the preparation 
is made with peat taken recently from the pit. The peat 
taken from near the surface, or at a considerable depth, an- 
swers equally well. And the more compact the peat, and 
the fitter to prove good fuel, so much the more promising it 
is to be prepared for manure. 

' Take the peat-moss to a dry spot, convenient for con- 
structing a dunghill, to serve the field to be manured. Lay 
the cart-loads of it in two rows, and of the dung in a row 
betwixt them. The dung thus lies on the area of the com- 
post dunghill, and the rows of peat should be near enough 
each other, that workmen in making up the compost may 
be able to throw them together by the spade. In making 
up, let the workmen begin at one end ; and at the extremity 
of the row of dung, (which should not extend quite so far at 
that end as the rows of peat on each side of it do,) let them 
lay a bottom of peat, six inches deep, and fifteen feet wide. 
Then th^ow forward, and lay about ten inches of dung above 
the bottom of peat ; then four or five of dung ; and then 
cover it over with peat at the end v/liere it was begun, at 
the two sides, and above. The compost should not be 
raised above four feet and a half high, otherwise it is apt to 
press too heavily on the under parts, and check the fermen- 
tation : unless the peat, when dry, be very puffy and light, 
and then a much greater height is desirable. Neither should 
it be much lower, otherwise it will prove wanting in the 
compactness, and soon also, if the weather is very dry, in 
the moisture required for the ingredients of which it con- 
sists to act chemically on each other. When a beginning- 
is thus made, the workmen will proceed working backwards, 
and adding to the column of compost as they are furnished 
with the three rows of materials directed to be laid down for 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 211 

them. They must take care not to tread on the compost, 
or render it too compact ; and of consequence, in propor- 
tion as the peat is wet, it should be made up in lunips, and 
not much mashed or broken. 

' In mild weather, seven cart-loads of common farm-yard 
dung, tolerably fresh made, is suilif.ient for twenty-one cart- 
loads of peat-moss ; but in cold weather, a larger proportion 
of dung is desirable ; at least it is prudent to omit putting 
any peat between the two upper layers of dung, and rathe" 
thicken the cu^er coating with peat. It is also proper in 
winter, if ground with a dry bottom can be conveniently em- 
ployed for the purpose, to increase greatly the breadth of the 
dunghill^which, in that case, may be done without any limit, 
by adding, all round the dunghill, circles, consisting of layers 
of dung and peat, of seven feet in breadth. And if the mass 
of the dunofhill is thus cnlarg^ed, the/e is little occasion to 
exceed the proportion of dung recommended for making up 
to prepare in .he milder season; especially if a covering of 
coarse vegetables of any sort, such as waste hay or straw, 
rushes, broom, or furze, or brushwood of evergreens, is 
thrown over the dunofhill. In fact, a coverinof of this sort is 
scarce less useful in summer to prevent the escape of mois- 
ture, than in winter to exclude cold. 

' To every twenty-eight cart-ioads of the compost, when 
made up, it is of use to throw oh above it a cart-load of 
ashes, either made from coal, peat, or wood ; or if these can- 
not be had, half the quantity of slacked lime may be used, 
the more finely powdered the better. But these additions 
are in nowise esse itial to the general success of the com- 
post, provided a sufficiency of time is allowed to the prepa- 
ration to compensate for the want of them. 

' The dung to be used should either have been recently 
made, or kepc fresh by compression ; as by the treading of 
cattle or' swine, or by carts passing over it. And if there is 
little or no litter in it, a smaller quantity will serve, pro- 
vided any spongy vegetable matter is added at making up the 
compost, as fresh weeds, the rubbish of a stack-yard, pota- 
to-shaws, sawings of timber, &c. And as some sorts of 
dun(;, even when fresh, are much more advanced in decom- 
position than others, it is material to attend to this ; for a 
much less proportion of such dung, especially if abounding 
in animal ma^.ter, as is less advanced, will servie for the com- 
post, provided care is taken to keep the mass sufficiently 
open, either by a mixture of the above-mentioned substances, 



212 '■•' THE COMPLETE FARMER 

or, if these are wanting, by adding the peat piecemeal, that 
is, first mixing it up in the usual proportion of three to one 
of dung, and then, after a time, adding an equal quantity, 
more or less, of peat. The dung of this character of great- 
est quantity is shamble-dung, with which, under the above 
precautions, six times the quantity of peat, or more, may be 
prepared. The same holds as to pigeon-dung and other 
fowl-dung ; and to a certain extent, also, as to that which is 
collected from towns, and made by animals that feed on 
grains, refuse of distilleries, &c. 

' The compost, after it is made up, gets into a general 
heat, sooLer or later, according to the weatlier and the con- 
dition of the dung ; in summer, in ten days or sooner ; in 
Mqnter, not perhaps for many weeks, if the cold is severe. 
It always, however, has been found to come on at last ; and 
in summer, it sometimes rises so high as to be mischievous, 
by consuming the materials, (fire-fanging.) In that season, 
a stick should be kept in it in different parts, to pull out and 
feel now and then ; for if it approaches to blood-heat, it 
should either be watered or turned over; and on such an 
occasion, advantage may be taken to mix with it a little 
fresh peat. The heat subsides, after a time, and with great 
variety, according to the weather, the dung, and the perfection 
of the making up of the compost ; which then may be 
allowed to remain untouched, until within three or four 
weeks of using, when it should be turned over, upside down 
and outside in, and all lumps broken : then it comes into a 
second heat, but soon cools, and is fit to be taken out for use. 
In this state the whole, except bits of the old decayed wood, 
appears a black free mass, and spreads like garden-mould. 
Use it, weight for weight, as farm-yard dung ; and it will 
be found, in a course of cropping, fully to stand the com- 
parison.' 

Many other articles are useful for manure, such as blood, 
offals of animals, hair, refuse feathers, woolen ras^s, hoofs 
and horns of cattle, sheep, &c. ; bones of all kinds, pounded, 
broken, or ground, at the rate of sixty bushels to the acre ; 
raw skins ; fish of all kinds ; swamp mud, river mud, pond 
mud and sea mud, wood ashes, turfs, sea-weeds, moss mixed 
with dung in holes — good for potatoes, turf from highways, 
&c. ; shells of shell-fish ; scrapings of streets and back 
yar.^s; rubbish of old houses, and earth which has long 
been under cover. Both of these collect and retain nitre. 
Old brine of salted meat or fish, which contains, besides salt, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 213 

some blood, oil, &c., in composts. Sea water, which con- 
tains other substances besides water and salt, whijh are ft 
for nourishing plants. Soap-suds, replete with a prepared 
food for plants ; excellent for watering gardens in dry 
weather. None of this should ever be lost. If the earden 
be distant or wet it may enrich the dung heap. Water ia 
the hollows of farm-yards. Instead of suffering this liquor 
to soak into the earth, it should be taken up by straw litter, 
or some absorbent substance thrown into it, or carri?d out in 
a water-cart, and sprinkled over land which needs it, in the 
manner m which streets are watered in cities. 

In the New England Farmer, vol. ix. p. 245, was published 
an articltj written by Hon. John Lowell, to the Hor. Tliomas 
L. VVinthrop, president of the Massacliusetts society for the 
Promotion of Agriculture, from which the following is ex- 
tracted : 

' A few years since, the Hon. William Ellis, of Dedham, 
recommended to me the use of the head and feet bones of 
oxen, as a highly valuable manure on meadow lands. He 
said he had observed in passing, that I had grounds remarka- 
bly well adapted for this manure. I. however, neglected this 
hint, though I constantly kept it in mind, until the last year, 
when, seeing an immense load of the heads of oxen passing 
by, I inquired of the owner for what purpose he was cart- 
ing these materials, and he answered me to the following 
facts, viz. : that he came down a distance of eight miles 
with an empty team, and was carrying back a load, which 
cost him two dollars, to put on his meadow land. I found 
it was no new experiment with him, and that he came often 
for that purpose. 

' I made the experiment. Its success surpassed all his de- 
scriptions. The manure brought in new grasses. It en- 
couraged and invigorated the old. 

' I am aware it is only of limited application, but it is no 
trifling thing \.o render useful an article formerly thrown 
away. We know so little of the philosophy of manure, that 
I shall not speak positively on the subject. All I shall say 
is, that there is much animal matter still adhering to the 
bones, and animal matter has been found by experience to 
promote the sfrowth of vegetables. 

' The mode of application is to break them up with a 
sledge, or with the back of an axe, and then to press them 
below the surface by a rammer or beetle. The only point 
to which I offer my testimony is that the effeUs are much 



214 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

greater than an equal quantity of horse and cow dung. This 
may be relied on.' 



FENCES. The kinds of fence and manner of fencing 
should vary according to the difierence of soils and the 
kinds of materials for fencinof. In new lands losjs are and 
ought to be most used. When built of white pine, they will 
last about twenty years. Other sorts of wood, such as pitch 
pine, hamljck, ash, oak, &;c., will endure for a considerable 
time if not placed too near the ground. If a fence be made 
partly of w^hite pine and partly of other wood, the former 
should be laid nearest to the ground. If logs are pealed 
they will last the longer in fences. 

It has been practised by some farmers to make posts for 
fences very durable by the following simple process. They 
bore a hole in that part of the post which, when set, will be 
just at the surface of the earth, with such a slope as will 
carry it downward an inch or two. They then fill the hole 
with salt, which will preserve the timber a long time from 
decay. 

In many parts of the country posts and rails will be found 
the cheipest materials for fence. In making fences of this 
description, it is advised by Mr. Preston, of Stockport, Penn- 
sylvania, to set the posts with the top parts in the ground, 
and he asserts that they will, in that position, last three or 
four times as long as when they are set with the butt ei.ds 
down. He advises, also, in making fences, always to place 
the rails with the heart side up. 

The best timber for rails, according to Dr. Deane, is red 
cedar. It is easy to split, light to carry and handle, suffi- 
ciently strong, ard the most durable of any. In the Trans- 
actions of the Society of Arts, in England, there is an ac- 
count which states in substance that posts of oak, and others 
of chestnut, were set down in Somersetshire, where they had 
to undergo repairs in eighteen years. The oak posts were 
then found to be unserviceable, and the chestnut very little 
worn. The oak posts were renewed, the chestnut remained, 
and in twenty-five years afterwards they were not so much 
rotted as the oak. 

If the lower ends of posts are scorched in a hot flxme be- 
fore they are put into the ground, they will last the longer. 
Some recommend soaking them in sea-water to keep them 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 215 

from rotting. The posts should be set at least two feet in 
the ground. Some farmers cut their posts so long, and mor- 
tise them in such a manner, that they can turn them upside 
down, when the lower ends become rotten. 

It is said in the Barnstable Journal, that ' deacon Wins- 
low Martin has on his farm a kind of fence, which for dura- 
bility and beauty can hardly be exceeded. On each side of 
the road adjacent his dwelling are rows of large button- 
wood trees, set ten or twelve feet asunder. Into these, when 
young, cedar rails were inserted, as into common posts. As 
the trees increased in size, the wood formed closely around 
th3 ends of the rails, and firmly secured them in their places. 
It is certainly a durable and cheap fence, because it will re- 
quire no i*bpairs at least for one generation, and is moreover 
constantly increasing in value. Were our roads lined with 
this kind offence, it would add not a little to the beauty of 
the country and the comfort of the traveller.' 

The Farmer's Guide observes, that ' post and rail fences and 
board fences are very good where the soil is dry. In a wet 
soil, the posts will be moved by frost. Red cedar, locust, 
and chestnut, are best. Butternut, black walnut, and oak, 
are pretty good, lasting about fifteen years. For the rails, 
cedar is best, lasting perhaps an age. If timber is scarce, 
and the ground is level and free from stones, post and rail 
fences, set in a bank of the earth of two small ditches, 
thrown up together, ought to be preferred. If the posts are 
too small to have holes made through them, the rails may be 
flattened at the ends, and fastened to the posts with spikes, 
or with wooden pins well secured.' 

When ground is wholly subdued, and the stumps of its 
original trees quite rotted out, stone walls, properly made, 
are the best and cheapest fences. On hard, sandy or gravelly 
soil, a wall will stand many years without repairing. On a 
clay or miry soil, the foundation should be laid in a trench, 
nearly as low as the earth freezes. But a wall of flat or 
square shaped stones will stand pretty well on any soil on 
the surface. 

A writer for the Genesee Farmer gives the following di- 
rections for ' Planting Posts for Garden Fences, &c.' 

' Instead of fiUing the holes up with the earth taken out 
in digging them, I would recommend filling in around the 
posts leached ashes instead of common earth, and topping 
off with five or'six inches of unleached ashes above the sur- 
face of the ground ; for it is generally between ivi/id and 



216 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

water, as the sailors term it, that garden posts begin to de- 
cay. My reason for recommending ashes is, that I have fre- 
quently found pieces of board, hoops, and staves buried under 
hea^ s of leached ashes, which had lain there many years, 
and were quite as sound as when first buried. No doubt 
mirv of your readers have noticed the same, in removing 
ol^ ash heaps near potash works.' 



HEDGES. In some soils, situations, and circumstances 
hedcre fences will be found most advisable and economical. 
The following remarks on this subject, by the Hon. John 
Lowell, were published in the New England Farmer, vol. x. 
p. 339. 

' It is not my intention to recommend live hedges for this 
rocky part of the United States. Our own stones furnish 
the best divisions we could ask for or desire ; and on most 
farms the removal of them from the soil would be economi- 
cal, and the placing them as partitions for fields is the cheap- 
est and most natural mode of disposing of them. Still, in 
New England, there are extensive tracts of country of allu- 
vial or diluvial soil in which no rocks are found, and in 
which a stone wall could not be obtained without great ex- 
pense. Such is the state of the greater part of the old colo- 
ny below Plymouth, and of some parts of the county of 
Middlesex. But wherever wood fences are required it may 
be useful to substitute live hedges. The question is, what 
has been our experience as to the comparative value of the 
various plants employed in New England for live hedges ? 
In the remarks which follow, I beg it may be understood, 
that I do not intend to oppose the opinions expressed by a 
learned and judicious horticulturist, judge Buel ; nor those 
expressed by practical gentlemen at the south ; but simnly 
the results of my own personal experience and observation, 
during the last eighteen years, since the subject of live 
hedges attracted the attention of our cultivators. Nothing 
which I may say can in any degree impeach the correctness 
of their statements, because the causes of the failure of cer- 
tain plants with us may have been entirely local. This 
would not appear remarkable, when we consider that the lo- 
cust [robinia pseudocacia) is absolutely interdicted to us, 
while it is the favorite and one of the most valuable trees 
of the south. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 217 

' Suffice it then to say, that the Virginia thorn, intro- 
duced here by Mr. Quincy, with whom it appeared to suc- 
ceed, is in most cases utterly useless as a fence. This is 
chiefly owing to the ravages of a worm at its root ; whether 
it be the same which attacks the apple and the quince, is a 
point not settled. The same objection is applicable to the 
English hawthorn. And to this fatol one is superadded an- 
other, the appearance of a fungus of a yellow color on the 
leaves, which utterly disfigures them and strips them of their 
foliage in September. The s;leditschia triacanihos is not 
suited for hedges with us. If left to grow they soon grow out 
of all reach, if checked they are winter-killed. We are in- 
debted wholly and entirely to the experiments of Eze- 
kiel Hersy Derby, Esq. for the possession of a plant, the 
buckthorn, {rhammts catharticus,) which, from ten years' 
trial, seems to afford every desirable quality for a healthy, 
beautiful, and effectual hedge. VV- refer the public to Mr. 
Derby's account in the New England Farmer, for particulars. 
* I can only say, and I feel it a duty to say, that I have 
tried this plant for six years. It is hardy and rapid in its 
growth, of impenetrable thickness, and so far as that extent 
of experiment enables me to judge, not subject to any dis- 
ease, or the visitation of any insect whatever. As it is very 
provoking as well as expensive to cultivators to be led 
astray, and to find after five or ten years that they have 
been deceived, they would do well to examine the growing 
hedges of the buckthorn, or rhamnus catharticus, at Mr. 
Derby's, Mr. Brooks', Dr. Jackson's, or at my place. 

'JOHN LOWELL.' 
The following is extracted from a notice of Mr. Derby of 
the cultivation and uses of the buckthorn, referred to above 
by Mr. Lowell. ' You will perceive that Miller represents 
it as a shrub growing about twelve or fourteen feet high. 
The tree from which my plants were raised formerly stood 
in the garden of the venerable Dr. Holyoke of this place, 
who used the berries for medicinal purposes, and was as large 
as any of our common apple-trees. He assures me he was 
induced at last to cut it down, as it shaded so much of his 
garden. I was so pleased with the healthy and clean ap- 
pearance of the tree, and the next spring observing several 
young plants in the adjoining garden belonging to my bro- 
ther, raised from seed dropped in the autumn, that I was in- 
duced to transplant them to a nursery, where they grew with 
great rapidity. 
19 



218 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

' After trying several kinds of trees for the purpose of 
making a hedge without much success, I was induced to try 
this, which has afforded a most beautiful fence, so much so 
as to attract the attention of every person who has seen it. 
It divides my garden, is about three hundred feet in length, 
the plants set nearly a foot apart, is five feet high, and two 
feet wide at top, which is cut nearly level. It shoots early 
in the spring, makes a handsome appearance, and continues 
its verdure till very late in the fall. It has not so much 
spine as either the English or American hawthorn, but I 
think sufficient to protect it from cattle. The plant bears 
the knife or shears remarkably, and makes as close and tight 
a fence as either of the others, and is not subject to blight, 
as both of them have been with me. You will observe that 
Miller speaks of it as not so proper for hedges as the haw- 
thorn or crab, which may be the case in England, but I can- 
not agree with him as it respects America.' 

The tree furnishes a large quantity of seed, which rapidly 
vegetates ; and I make no doubt it can be propagated by 
cuttings, which mode I shall adopt in the spring. 

We are apprehensive that no species of thorn can be cul- 
tivated to advantage in New England for the purpose of 
making hedges, on account principally of the insects which 
in this part of the country infest that plant. Some, how- 
ever, prefer the American thorn, {cratcegus cor data.) A 
valuable communication relative to the use of this and other 
plants for live fences, by Benjamin Shurtleff, M. D., may 
be found in New England Farmer, vol. ix. p. 209. 

Upon consulting* Mr. Lowell as to any changes it would 
be proper to make on the article of hedges, he states that he 
still gives the preference to the buckthorn, but that the New- 
castle thorn, grown by John Prince, Esq., is more beautiful, 
and it bids fair to be as enduring and as free from disease. 
The rapidity of growth of the buckthorn is in his judgment 
a full equivalent for the beauty of the other. 



SHEEP. There are a great many varieties of sheep, 
with differences more or less marked. To give even an 
abridged account of all the kinds described in foreign publi- 
cations would require a large volume. In England the prin- 
cipal division of sheep is into the long wool and the short 
WOOL kinds. Among those bearing long wool are the Leices- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 219 

ter, Devonshire Nots, Exmoor, Heath, the Baheiuell or Dishley 
breeds, &c. &c. The origin of the last-mentioned breed 
of sheep is thus described by an English writer : 

' Mr. Bakewell selected from his own flock, and from the 
flocks of others, those sheep to breed from which possessed 
in the greatest degree that perfection of form he was de- 
sirous to retain and perpetuate. By judiciously crossing 
them, and selecting the most perfect of their progeny, he at 
length succeeded in forming the breed, which has been dis- 
tinguished by the name of the New Leicester, or Dishley 
breed ; and having attained his object, he carefully guarded 
against any future intermixtures with other breeds. This 
breed-exceeds all others in its propensity to fatten ; and by 
crossing by rams with this breed, a considerable portion of 
the long-wooled sheep in England have been greatly im- 
proved in this respect. 

' The peculiar characters of these sheep have been well 
described by Mr. Culley, an eminent grazier in Northumber- 
land, who introduced the breed into that part of England. 
The Dishley breed are distinguished from other long-wooled 
breeds by their fine lively eyes, clean heads, straight, broad, 
flat backs, jound (barrel-like) bodies, very fine small bones, 
■*; in pelts, and inclination to fat at an early age. The last 
property is probably owing to the before-specified qualities, 
■which, from observation and experience, there is reason to 
believe extend generally through every species of domestic 
quadrupeds. The Dishley breed is not only peculiar for the 
mutton being fat, but also for the fineness of the grain ; the 
flavor is superior to the mutton of most other long-wooled 
breeds. The weight of the carcass may be stated in general : 
ewes three or four years old, from eighteen to twenty-six 
pounds per quarter ; wethers two years old, from twenty to 
thirty pounds.' 

Among the short-wooled sheep, the English possess, besides 
the Merino breed. South Doivns, the Ryela?id, the Shropshire^ 
the Shetland, the Dorset, Wilts, k,c. &;c. Merino sheep were 
first introduced into Great Britain in the year 1787 ; and 
although it was formerly a general opinion, that the excel- 
lence of their fleece depended in a great degree upon the 
temperature of the Spanish climate, it has been ascertained 
that the fineness of the Spanish wool is not impaired by 
breeding the sheep in England, France, Saxony, Hungary, 
&c. 

It is important in the management of sheep to keep the 



220 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

store sheep in as equal condition as possible, but not too fat, 
all the year round. In the grass season they should be kept 
in dry pastures, in which the grass is short and sweet. Dur- 
ing the winter they should have a steady and measured al- 
lowance of suitable food, and not sometimes be fed profusely, 
and at other times scantily. 

Mortimer says, ' The farmer should always buy his sheep 
from a worse land than his own, and they should be big 
boned, and have a long greisy wool. 

' F jr the choice of sheep to breed, the ram must be young, 
and his skin of the same color with his wool ; for the lambs 
will be of the same color with his skin. Those ewes which 
have no horns are found to be the best breeders.' 

The farmers of Europe know how to distinguish the age 
of sheep by their teeth. When a sheep is one shear, as they 
express it, that is, has been sheared but once, or is in its 
second year, it has two broad teeth before ; when it is two 
shear, it will have four; when three, six; when four shear, 
or in its fifth year, it will have eight teeth before. After 
this, their mouths begin to break. 

' The fat pastures breed straight, tall sheep, and the barren 
hills square and short ones. But the best sheep of all are 
tho:5e bred upon new ploughed land, the reason of which may 
be easily guessed, as such Irnd is commonly the most free 
from bad grasses. 

' All wet and moist lands are bad for sheep, especially such 
as are subject to be overflawed, and to have sand and dirt 
left on them. The salt marshes are an exception from this 
general rule ; for their saltness makes amends for their mois- 
ture ; any thing salt, by reason of its drying qualities, being 
of great advantage to sheep. The best time for sheep to 
yean, which go twenty weeks with lamb, is in April, unless 
the owner has any forward grass, or turnips. Ewes that 
are big should be kept but bare; for it is dangerous for them 
to be fat at the time of their bringing forth their young. 
They may be well fed, indeed, like cows, a fortnight before- 
hand, to put them in heart.' 

M. Buffon says, ' One ram will be sufficient for twenty- 
five or thirty ewes ; but that he should be remarkable for 
strength and comeliness ; that those which have no horns 
are very indifferent ; that the head of a ram should be large 
and thick, the forehead broad, the eyes large and black, the 
nose short, the neck thick, the body long, the back and rump 
broad, the testicles large, and the tail long ; that the best 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 221 

are white, with a large quantity of wool on the belly, tail, 
head and ears, down to the eyes ; that the best sheep for 
propagation are those which have most wool, and that close, 
long, silky and white ; especially if at the same time they 
have a large body, a thick neck, and are light footed.* 

He says, ' that ewes fatten very fast during their pregnan- 
cy ; that as they often hurt themselves, and frequently mis- 
carry, so they sometimes become barren ; and that it is not 
very extraordinary for them to bring forth monstrous pro- 
ductions. But when properly tended, they are capable of 
yeaning during the whole of their life, or to the age of ten 
or twelve years. But most commonly when they come to 
be seven or eight year old, they begin to break, and become 
sickly ; and that a ram is no longer fit for propagation after 
eight years, at which time he should be fattened with the 
old sheep.' 

According to the same writer, ' sheep should in the sum- 
mer be turned out early in the morning to feed ; and in four 
or live hours, after watering, be brought back to the fold, or 
to some shady place. At four o'clock, in the afternoon, they 
should be turned to their pasture again, and continue there 
till evening ; and were it not for the danger of wolves, they 
should pass the night in the open air, which would render 
them more vigorous, clean, and healthy. As the too great 
heat of the sun is hurtful to them, shady pastures are best 
for them ; or else to drive them to a place with a western 
descent in the morning, and the contrary towards evening.' 
That their wool may be saved, they should not be pastured 
in bushy places, or where there are briars. Sheep are often 
thus deprived of most of their fleeces; which, besides the loss 
of the wool, is very hurtful to the animals, when the wea- 
ther is not warm. 

The above writer directs, ' that every year a flock of sheep 
should be examined, in order to find out such as begin to grow 
old, and ought to be turned off for fattening. As they re- 
quire a particular management, so they should be put in a 
flock by themselves. They should feed while the grass is 
moistened with dew in the morning. Salt should be given 
them to excite' thirst, as the more they drink the faster they 
will grow fat."^ But to complete their fattening, and make 
their flesh firm and solid, they should have some corn or grain 

* It has been found, however, that salt given in excess is injurious to 
sheep. 

19=^ 



222 THE COMFLETE FARMER 

given them.' They may be fattened in the winter ; but it is 
commonly too expensive, ab they will require a good deal of 
richer food than hay. When sheep are once become fat, 
they should be killed ; for it is said they cannot be made fat 
a second lime. The teeth of ewes begin to decay at five, 
those of weathers at seven, and those of rams not until eight. 

Ezves, Lambs, Sj-c. It is recommended to give ewes with 
lamb a somewhat more than ordinary quantity of food for 
a month or six weeks before they are expected to yean ; 
not enough, however, to make them fat, as dangerous con- 
sequences might attend their being in very high condition at 
that period. Turnips are said to be injurious to ewes with 
lamb, but may be well giA'en them after they have yeaned. 
If your sheep, whether store sheep or ewes with lamb, have 
good hay, about a quart of potatoes a day to each will, it is 
said, be very beneficial, and an ample allowance. But when 
the object is to fat them, according to a writer in Eees' Cy- 
clopedia, about a gallon of potatoes a day, with a little hay, 
will be the proper quantity ; but this is dependent, in part, on 
the size of the animals, and in part on the quality and quan- 
tity of the hay which is allowed to them. Potatoes, besides 
their use as food for sheep, are said to be very serviceable 
as an article of diet, which usually supersedes the necessity 
of medicine. They have, when given raw, an opening or 
purgative quality, which is thought to be of use, and answer 
a similar purpose wdth sheep which is effected with swine 
by brimstone and antimony. Potatoes, baked, steamed, oi 
boiled, will furnish more nutriment than those Avhich are 
raw. 

Care should be taken to place in the stable small tubs or 
troughs of water for the sheep to drink in. They will do 
very well in summer without water, as they feed when the 
dew is on, but they need water in winter, especially if fed 
mostly on dry food. 'When sheep have colds, and discharge 
mucus from the nose, good feeding, together with pine boughs, 
given occasionally, will cure them ; or tar, spread over a 
board, over which a little fine salt is strewed, will induce the 
sheep to lick up tar, and this will cure a cold.'^ Half a gill 
of Indian corn a day, given to each sheep during winter, is 
recommended as keeping them in good heart, preventing the 
wool from falling off, and enabling the ewes to rear their 

* Deane's New England Farmer. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



223 



young better than they would if fed altogether on food of a 
less substantial nature. 

' When several kinds of food can be procured, it is right 
to give them alternately to il»e sheep at different meals, m 
the course of the same day ; the qualities of one kind aid or 
compensate those of another. At certain hours of the day, 
dry fodder should be given, and, at others, roots or grain. 
If there be any danger that the roots may decay, the winter 
should be begun with them, mixing, however, some dry food 
with them, for alone they would not be sufficiently nutri- 
tious."^ 

Writers do not agree on the quantity of food which a 
given nu^mber of sheep will consume to advantage in a given 
time. Probably, it would be very difficult to lay do Am any 
rules on the subject which would not be subject to very 
nearly as many exceplions as coincidences. Some seasons 
would require more food than others for the same sheep ; 
the same number of sheep of different sizes, ages, sexes, and 
breeds, would also consume different quantities of food of 
the same quality. When we add to these causes of error 
the consideration that food of the same kind is often very 
different in quality, — one ton of clover hay, for example, 
mowed at the right period of its growth, and well made and 
housed, may be worth two tons of the same sort of hay 
grown and made under different circumstances — nothing, 
therefore, can be hoped for in this inquiry, except some ap- 
proximation to truth. We may, however, perhaps provide 
ourselves with materials for the exercise of those qualities 
for guessing, for which New England people are celebrated. 
"When a man is laying in fodder for his sheep or neat cattle, 
it may be of great consequence to be able to form a con- 
jecture approximating the truth, relative to the quantity 
and quality of provisions for that purpose which it may be 
expedient to accumulate. 

Mr. Lawrence says, ' sheep will eat, on an average, tAventy 
pounds of turnips each in twenty-four hours. An acre of 
good turnips in the field, between November and March, 
will keep one hundred sheep six weeks. One gallon of raw 
potatoes will suffice a sheep twenty-four hours, but some 
will eat much more. Fourteen hundred sheep will eat up 
and spoil an acre of good turnips in a night. Of the quan- 
tities of hay and corn [grain] which a sheep will consume 

* Tessier's Treatise on Sheep. 



224 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



1 



daily, I do not recollect any accurate experiments. To 
feed liberally one hundred sheep with this precious article 
throughout the winter season, ten tons at least would be re- 
quired ; although I have lately been informed by a great 
sheep-master, that he allows but that quantity to a flock of 
one thousand ; his turnips being exellent, with plenty of 
grazing ground. 

' As to corn, [grain] a large sheep will eat several pints or 
pounds per day ; and the comparison of quantity of food be- 
tween the sheep and the ox may be generally stated at one- 
eighth or one-ninth part for the sheep.' 

' One thing (says M. Tessier) cannot be too much recom- 
mended, which is to place the hay in the racks while the 
sheep are out of the house ; by this precaution, the dust will 
not fall upon the fleeces.' Dr. Deane observed that the rack 
in which the hay is put should be upright, so that in feeding 
the seeds, chaff", &;c. should not fall into the wool about their 
necks. Under the rack should be a trough for catching the 
seeds of the hay and feeding the sheep. 

With regard to giving salt to sheep, Avriters have disa- 
greed. It is believed to be better not to give them any than 
to allov/ them too great a quantity. M. Tessier says, 
' Sheep have been known to be attacked by long and trouble- 
some looseness in consequence of having taken too much 
salt ; which has induced the belief that sea-water is poison- 
ous to them ; and that his sheep have always been healthy, 
though he had never given them any salt. But he states 
that it may be indispensably necessary in wet countries. 
And Dr. Cooper, editor of the last edition of the Domestic 
Encyclopedia, recommends one-fourth of an ounce a day as 
a proper quantity for sheep. Mr. Grove likewise says, ' salt 
is required by sheep at intervals during the whole year, but 
it is often given in too great quantity, and almost forced upon 
the sheep ; which is often injurious, and often injures the 
digestion so that the best grain will pass through them un- 
altered.' 

The same writer says, ' In the season for dropping lambs, 
the utmost care is necessary. The birth is most commonly 
easy, but often slow. Ignorant shepherds are very apt on 
such occasions to be aiding in the birth, which is always use- 
less and often very injurious. 

' It often happens,' says Mr. Grove, ' that ewes will not 
own their lambs, particularly the first they bear ; and in this 
case 1 would advise to the sprinkling a little salt on the lamb, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 225 

which induces the ewe to lick it, after which she will gene- 
rally allow it to suck. If not, the ewe with her lamb should 
be placed in a separate inclosure (of which several should be 
previously prepared) and fed with the most nutritious fodder, 
particularly with nourishing liquids, that tiie udder maj^ be 
uncomfortably distended ; and if this be not sufficient, sho 
must be tied by the legs till the lamb has been once suckled; 
after which there will be no farther difficulty.' 

Sir John Sinclair observed, that ' there is no food of which 
sheep are fonder than pea-straw ; and where circumstances 
are favorable for that crop, peas ought to be cultivated more 
for the straw, from the advantages that would thence be de- 
rived by the sheep-farmer.' Mr. Young al.^o observes, that 
' the straw of early white peas, applied to sheep, is the most 
valuable return made by straw.' 

A writer for the New England Farmer, vol. iv. p. 234, 
with the signature x\l. R. C, gives the following judicious 
remarks on sheep. 

' Perhaps there is no domestic animal that requires more 
nice and constant attention than the sheep, and n j other that 
will more richly pay for generous keeping. Though he may 
not bt more liable to disease, nor require a better quality of 
food than neat stock, still that management which will keep 
cattle in good case will not answer for sheep. His habits 
and mode of feeding are entirely different. For instance, in 
the winter season a cow may be kept tied to the stall twenty- 
two hours out of the twenty-four, pnd, if well fed three times a 
day, keep her flesh and get sufficient exercise for her health. 
Serve a sheep in the same manner and it would not proba- 
bly live a month. It is natural for sheep to move about and 
change situLtion. Turn a flock of hungry sheep into a pas- 
ture, they will run to the end of it before they be^in to eat ; 
feed them in troughs, they will run over all till they come 
to the last, when they have it in their power. They are 
almost continually shifting situation from hill to dale, from 
one kind of food to another ; and it is a fact that sheep will 
thrive better on two or three different kinds of ordinary fod- 
der, than they will to be confined to one kind that is of a 
superior quality. 

' The proper time to yard sheep in the fall is while they 
are yet in good order from fresh feed, and before the frost 
takes the nourishing qualities from the grass : but a time 
in which many sheep are not folded ; they are left to nibble 
over the frozen pastures till they lose the flesh of half a 



226 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

summer's keeping, and which takes half a winter to regain. 
It is a great error which is persisted in with an idea to save 
fodder. But setting aside the injury done pastures by close 
feeding at this season of the year, the sheep whicli stray 
away and are lost, and the time spent in hunting them, which 
are not idle considerations, the farmer would more than get 
repaid for his extra fodder, and a few Aveeks' attention in 
yarding his sheep sooner, by preserving their health and 
condition. When they are put to winter quarters they re- 
quire as much variety as possible, not that they want so 
much room, but they need a number of different apartments. 
Two yards and one shed will do very well for one flock, or, 
what will answer the same purpose, if a large number of 
sheep are to be kept near each other, have the yards in a 
row, and one more yard than flocks of sheep. Then by 
shifting one flock to the spare yard it leaves another vacant, 
and so on. Thus may all be changed, which should be done 
at every time of feeding. As fast as the yards are empty, the 
food should be put in them, and never while the sheep are 
there. One hundred sheep are enough to be kept together. 
Cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Their yards should 
be littered with straw or something of the kind constantly, 
or they will be in danger of losing in a degree a relish for 
their food. 

' The next thing necessary is to have proper places for 
your sheep to eat hay in, which are the common board man- 
gers, and may make partings to the yards. Take six joists, 
say three inches square, and four feet long ; have the boards 
of a length, then nail two of them to the joists set up per- 
pendicularly in such a manner that one joist will be in the 
middle of each board, and the other two at the ends, and 
that the top edge of the boards will be one foot from the 
ground ; then nail short boards on the ends two feet and a 
half long, the width of the manger ; the next board on the 
sides to be placed eight inches from the lower boards, then 
board it tight to the top of the joists, and the manger is 
finished. A manger eighteen feet long, of this description, 
will accommodate thirty sheep. Single mangers may be 
made along the outside fence of the yard, which do not re- 
quire to be so wide. The great superiority of these mangers 
over racks is, first, the facility of putting hay into them 
without dropping it on the ground ; secondly, it obviates the 
danger of hay-seed falling on the wool of the sheep ; and 
thirdly, it prevents any waste of fodder. The next thing 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 227 

after mangers for hay, should be a place appropriated for 
feeding out roots, which every farmer should raise to a cer- 
tain extent. Although we cannot turn them to so good an 
account as the English feeders do, on account of the severity 
of our winters, still a proportion of them as food for our 
stock is of great importance. In order that the farmer may 
make the most of his roots, he should have a cellar fixed to 
receive them in the fall, without too much labor, and ac- 
cessible at any time in the winter, without endangering them 
by frost. The cellar should be placed as near the yard as 
practicable, with a watering-place at hand. A good way of 
Avashing roots is to have an oblong box that will hold two 
or three bushels, with the bottom perforated with auger 
holes, and tockers placed on the under side of the box ; then, 
by pouring in a little water and rocking them, the dirt will 
directly wash through the bottom of the box. They should 
then be cut fine with a sharp shovel, and they are fit for 
feeding out. Browse in the winter occasionally for sheep is 
very palatable, and is of considerable use in preserving their 
appetite, and as a change of food, but care should be taken, 
to select the right kind. There are many kinds of hard 
wood, of which the bark and buds are very injurious. "^ The 
bark of the black cherry eaten by ewes with lamb is almost 
sure to produce abortion. Generally winter green is to be 
preferred to any other browse. White and yellow pine are 
best. 

' Regularity in feeding sheep is of prime consequence in. 
cold dry weather. It is not necessary to feed them oftener 
than three times a day, if discretion is used in the quantity 
of fodder. In warm weather, and especially if it is muddy, 
they should have little at a time, and be fed four or five 
times a day. Daubenton and others calculate that two 
pounds of hay are sufficient for the support of one sheep a 
day, (which, by the way, in our climate is not enough.) Cal- 
culations of this kind, if made with the utmost accuracy on 
one, or any number of sheep at one time, will not apply to 
the same sheep at another ; because so much depends on 
circumstances. A sheep that will eat three pounds of hay 
in a cold day will not, perhaps, eat more than two in a warm 
day following ; and still less in a damp one. Not that they 
require so much more food in cold weather than in warm, 

* The wood disease, so much complained of in France, is wholly owing 
to sheep's eating fresh buds. 



228 THE COaiPLETE FARMER 

but that Fudden changes affect their appetites and without 
injuring their health. Again, a sheep of proper form and 
inclination to fatten will not need so much nutriment to pre- 
serve its f.esh as one of the same weight of a coarse, raw- 
boned, uneasy make. And one kind of hay may have double 
the si^hstantial qualities of another. Therefore no certain 
rule can be given as to the quantity necessary for their sup- 
port ; though experiments of this kind are not without 
their use, for, as remarked in one of the New England Far- 
mers, they afford " a fine opportunity of guessing at the pro- 
per (,uantity necessary to keep a stock a given time." 

' There exists a great diversity of opinion in regard to the 
proper time of year for lambs to come. A New York wri- 
ter thinks that rams should not be taken from the ewes at 
all ; that lambs should come early in the winter, which is 
the natural time. This I think erroneous ; the natural time 
is the most convenient time, and the proprietor should be 
governed wholly by his means. There are adv^antages in 
having lambs come early, and disadvantages, and vice versa 
the same in having them come late. If a man has con- 
veniences for guarding against cold, and plenty of succulent 
food for his ewes, February and March is decidedly the 
best time for them to come. It is true that they require 
more attention at this season than in warm weather, but time 
is not worth so much, and the lambs learn to eat hay before 
they are turned to pasture, consequently they do much bet- 
ter the following winter. They get out of the way of foxes, 
and are able to take care of themselves at washing and 
shearing time, which is of considerable consequence. On 
the contrary, if the farmer is deficient in proper food and 
other conveniences for his sheep, and has a pasture near that 
he can look to his flock, it may often be advisable to have 
his lambs come in April or May. 

' When sheep are turned to pasture in the spring, the tran- 
sition from dry food to grass causes a relax, which spoils, or 
very mu-^.h injures a great part of the wool on their buttocks 
and thighs, and makes double the work at the time of wash- 
ing ; therefore, before they are turned to pasture the wool in 
the way sliould be carefully shorn ol-f, which is very little 
trouble, and makes a saving worth noticing. 

' In selecting a flock of sheep, the first care undoubtedly 
should be to gtt those of the evenest and finest wool ; the 
next, those of the best form and most peaceable disposition ; 
and the next care, which is very little thought of, to get those 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 229 

that are without horns. Any one who has had the manage- 
ment of sheep in the winter can testify to the injury which 
large-horned sheep do in crowding after fodder and running 
through gates, &c. Horned rams kept with pregnant ewes 
do great mischief. In many parts of Spain they amputate 
the horns of their rams, for which there are various proces- 
ses : some use a large chisel ; others a saw, which is the 
most expeditious way, and is preferable. There are other 
serious objections to the keeping of horned sheep, which I 
cannot better exemplify than by quoting the following words 
from Henry Cline, an eminent surgeon. 

' " Horns are useless in domestic animals. It is not diffi- 
cult to breed animals without them. The breeders of horn- 
ed cattle and horned sheep sustain a loss more extensive 
than they may conceive, for it is not the horn alone, but also 
much more bone in the skulls of such animals to support 
their horns ; besides, there is an additional quantity of liga- 
ment and bone in the neck, which is of small value. The 
skull of a ram with its horns weighed five times more than 
another skull which was hornless. Both these skulls were 
taken from sheep of the same age, each being four years old. 
The great difference in weight depended chiefly on the horns, 
for the lower jaws were nearly equal, one weighing seven 
ounces and the other six ounces and three-quarters ; which 
proves that the natural size of the head was nearly the same 
in both, independent of the horns and the thickness of the 
bone which supports them. In a horned animal the skull is 
extremely thick, in a hornless animal it is much thinner, 
especially in that part where the horns usually grow." 

' To those who have not reflected on the subject, it may 
appear of liule consequence whether sheep or cattle have 
horns ; but, on a very moderate calculation, it will be found 
that the loss in farming stock, and also in the diminution of 
animal food, is very considerable from the production of 
horns and their appendages. A mode of breeding which 
would prevent the production of these, would afford a consi- 
derable profit in an increase of meat and wool and other valu- 
able parts.' 

Shearing Sheep, SfC. Deane's New England Farmer 
states, that ' we shear our sheep in general too early in this 
country. In England, where the spring is more forward 
than in this country, the approved time of shearing is from 
the middle to the latter end of June. They should be wash- 
ed in a warm time ; after this they should run three or four 
20 



230 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

days in a clean pasture, before they are shorn. It is good 
for them to have time to sweat a Httle in their wool, after 
washing.' 

Mr. Lawrence says, ' June seems [in England] to be the 
general shearing month, and where no extraordinary precau- 
tions are taken, the business had better be delayed till to- 
wards midsummer, more especially in cold backward springs; 
because in such seasons we seldom until that period have 
any settled fair weather. Besides, a more perfect fleece is 
obtained, and fuller of yolk from the perspiration of the ani- 
mal. 

' Washing previous to clipping the sheep is the general 
custom, with few exceptions, in this country ; indeed it is 
proper with all long-wooled sheep, but not so easily practi- 
cable with the matted, greasy, and impenetrable fleeces of 
the Spanish and carding-wool breed, which in Spain they 
invariably shear dry, as has been the practice in Devonshire, 
with the short-wooled sheep, for centuries.' 

It is observed by Loudon, that ' sheep shearing in Rom- 
ney Marsh, [England] commences about midsummer and 
finishes about the middle of July. Those who shear latest 
apprehend that they gain half a pound weight in every fleece, 
by the increased perspiration of the sheep and consequent 
growth of the wool. Besides, they say, in early shearing the 
wool has not the condition which it afterwards acquires. 
But then in late shearing the fleece will have the less time 
to grow, so as to protect the animal against the rigors of the 
succeeding winter ; and if a year's interval is allowed be- 
tween each clipping time, after your routine is established 
the wool will have had the same period for its growth, 
whether you shear early or late. Sheep with fine fleeces, 
which are shorn without being washed on the back of the 
animal, may be clipped earlier in the season than those 
which are exposed to suffer for half an hour or more in cold 
water.' 

Lemuel W. Briggs, Esq., of Bristol, Rhode Island, in arti- 
cles published in the New England Farmer, volume iii. pages 
273, 287, stated certain facts, which would seem favorable to 
early shearing ; and in certain circumstances, and particu- 
larly with sheep which are not washed, there can be no doubt 
but the practice is beneficial. Mr. Briggs stated in substance, 
that Mr. Rouse Potter, of Prudence island, Narraganset bay, 
Rhode Island, who kept nine hundred and fifty sheep, and 
lost but two the preceding winter, begins to shear them by 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 231 

the first of May if the weather is favorable, and continues 
daily until he completes his shearing. For the first week, 
he puts those sheared under cover or in close ^'^ards every 
night ; by that time the wool will grow so as to give them a 
sufficient covering. By this practice of early shearing he 
gains much wool, which formerly, when he put his shearing 
off till the middle of June, the sheep would shed; and far- 
ther, when thus early sheared, the wool begins to start and 
grow much quicker than when shearing is deferred to the 
usual time. He says, that formerly, being exposed immedi- 
ately after shearing to the rays of the sun, their bare backs 
would frequently become sore and scabby, when no wool 
will grow till healed, and then what does grow from these 
scars is thinner and coarser than the rest. 

' Mr. Potter states, that he has found from actual experi- 
ment, that he not only gets more wool, which would other- 
wise be lost, but the siicceediiig ivool will be from half an 
inch to an inch longer, if sheared early, than it will be if 
delayed to the usual time of shearing. And farther, there is 
not the same necessity for washing the sheep, as the wool is 
much cleaner, more free from sand and dirt, when taken off 
early, than it would be if suffered to remain on their backs 
until a hot sun had compelled them to seek refuge under 
walls and fences.' 

The foregoing authorities are apparently altogether con- 
tradictory, as respects the time of year in which to shear 
sheep. But it is to be observed, that Mr. Potter did not 
wash his sheep before shearing, which must make considera- 
ble difference with regard to the risk from cold ; and Mr. Pot- 
ter appears to have been careful to shelter his sheep after 
shearing, which must in a great measure obviate the disad- 
vantages of early shearing. 

Mr. Lawrence, an eminent English writer, asserts, ' It has 
frequently appeared to me, on reflection, that it might be 
preferable to shear all kinds of sheep unwashed, and to wash 
them after shearing, when it would be much more effectual 
with respect to their health. Such as were affected with 
foulness or eruption of the skin might be washed and scrub- 
bed in a lye of water and wood ashes, in a large tub which 
would contain three. It would both conduce to the health 
of the sheep and promote the regular growth of the wool. 
Wool would probably keep best in the grease, and dust 
might be shaken from it. Any difficulty in respect to fixing 



232 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



1 



the price of wool in an unwashed state would vanish in a 
season or two.' 

' Clipping off the coarse soiled wool about the thighs and 
docks,' says Loudon, ' some weeks before the usual time of 
washing and clipping the sheep, is an excellent practice, as 
by this means the sheep are kept clean and cool when the 
season is hot ; and with ewes, the udders are prevented from 
becoming sore.' 

In separating for the purpose of washing, the flock is 
brought to the side of the washing pool, and those lambs 
and sheep of different kinds fit io be washed are put into 
separate inclosures ; and such lambs as are too young to be 
clipped are not washed, but confined in a fold or inclosure of 
any kind, at such a distance from the washing place that 
they may not disturb their mothers by bleating. 

In performing the operation of washing, it was formerly 
the method to have the washers standing up to their breast 
in the water; but from the inconvenience and danger of it, 
(the men requiring a large supply of spirituous liquors, and 
being liable to be attacked with colds, rheumatisms, and other 
diseases,) various other modes of performing the operation, 
have been proposed. Among others, that of sinking an empty 
hogshead or other vessel of sufficient capacity for a man to 
stand in while washing the sheep, may be as eligible as any. 
A boat near a bold shore of a sheet of water, with one end 
aground, by which the sheep is introduced and put overboard, 
while the man who washes him remains in the boat and ex- 
tends his arms over the sides, and thus performs the necessary 
manipulations, furnishes a convenient mode of washing 
sheep. A small perpendicular waterfall, under which sheep 
are conducted, may likewise be used to advantage for that 
purpose. 

It was uniformly the practice, immediately after shearing, 
to smear the bodies of sheep with some ointment, in which 
tar is the chief ingredient. This, however, has been con- 
demned, as causing a waste of wool in carding- and manu- 
facturing into cloth. But if the tar is mixed with a sufficient 
quantity of some greasy substance, the benefit may be ob- 
tained, (which is to preserve against ticks and the scab, as 
well as to increase the growth of the wool,) without any bad 
consequence resulting. A writer in Rees' Cyclopedia, on 
wool, says much in favor of a composition greatly used in 
Northumberland, England, and gives the following directions 
for making it : ' From sixteen to twenty pounds of butter 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 233 

are placed over a gentle fire and melted ; a gallon of tar is 
then added, and the mixture is then stirred with a stick until 
the tar and butter are well combined, and form a soft 
tenacious ointment.' Some skill is required in its applica- 
tion. The locks should be divided, and the ointment ap- 
plied directly to the skin. It does no good to apply it to the 
outside of the wool, but it must come in contact with the 
skin. This is best effected by opening the wool along the 
neck and back, and applying the ointment with the linger. 
In short, you must apply it in such a manner that it will be 
most likely to spread over every part of the body. The 
quantity laid on each animal differs in different districts. In 
the lighte* mode of greasing, one gallon of tar and twenty 
pounds of butter will be sufficient for fifty sheep. In Scot- 
land, where greasing is applied merely to preserve the ani- 
mal from inclemency of the climate, a much larger propor- 
tion of tar is used. This would be very injurious to the 
wool were it any other but the coarsest kind. To derive the 
greatest advantage from the ointment, both to the wool and 
the sheep, it should be applied immediately after shearing, 
and again on the approach of winter. By the first greasing, 
the wool will be kept soft and moist during the sultry heats 
of July and August, and the top of the staple will not be- 
come harsh and discolored. One acknowledged advantage 
of greasing immediately after shearing should not be over- 
looked : it destroys the sheep tick, and has a tendency to pre- 
vent cutaneous distempers, and to protect the skin against 
the bite of the fly. 

Mr. J. Nelson published a recipe for the scab on sheep, 
similar to the above, but which we should suppose might 
answer a still better purpose ; it is as follows : ' Take three 
gallons of tar and three gallons of train oil, boiled together, 
to which add three pounds of roll brimstone finely powdered 
and stirred in.' This quantity is sufficient for ninety sheep. 
It is poured on with a pitcher or ladle from the top of the 
back-bone to the tail. 

When the object is solely the destruction of ticks, a strong 
decoction of tobacco is probably as good an application as 
can be prescribed. Lambs often suffer much from ticks, 
after the sheep are sheared ; as the ticks which are driven 
from the old sheep take refuge with the lambs. It will, 
therefore, be advisable to apply either the ointment or the 
tobacco decoction to the lambs as well as to their elders. 
And in all cases see that your application goes to and spreads 
20=^ 



234 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

over the skin as equally as possible, instead of wetting or 
smearing the outside surface of the fleece, where it will be of 
more harm than benefit. 

On the Disorders of Sheep. The follo\v'ing observations 
are extracted from an Essay on Sheep, written by H. D. 
Grove, a scientific shepherd, who has been acquainted with 
sheep husbandry, as practised by the luool growers of Saxony^ 
France, and other parts of Europe. 

Almost all the disorders which attack sheep are caused by 
the want, and seldom or never by the excess of activity in 
the vital organs. The nerves are very susceptible, but sel- 
dom act with great force, and whenever they are powerfully 
excited, this excitement soon passes off and leaves the animal 
extremely weak. It follows from this that most of the means 
required for the cure of diseases among sheep should be cal- 
culated rather to excite than to allay the activity of the 
functions of life. A few of the most common diseases i>-nong 
sheep deserve to be particularly noticed. 

The Rot exhibits itself scarcely at all externally. The 
blood loses its high color and tendency to coagulate, and be- 
comes watery. The first perceptible symptom therefore is 
the loss of the bright red appearance about the eyes ; the 
lips and inside of the mouth also become pale, as well as the 
skin generally under the wool. The animal continues to feed 
well and does not grow poor, although the natural vivacity 
is diminished and some signs of weakness occur. 

The disease commonly gains strength in the winter. 
Watery swellings are formed, particularly under the chin, 
which are often absorbed and then reappear. Soon after 
these the animal generally dies, without showing any symp- 
toms of violent pain. Ewes attacked by this disease die 
most commonly about the time of dropping their lambs. 
The body on opening exhibits copious collections of water 
about the chest and entrails ; the blood is extremely pale as 
well as the flesh. This disorder is unquestionably caused 
by feeding in swampy grounds, and a few hours are suffi- 
cient to fix it upon a sheep. It is increased by damp, foggy 
weather, while, on the other hand, dry warm weather and 
high pasture, especially where there are many aromatic 
herbs, are sometimes sufficient to counteract the first symp- 
toms and effect a cure. This disorder, however, when it 
has reached such a point that a common observer may no- 
tice the symptoms, is probably incurable. At a very early 
stage a cure is possible if the flock is kept carefully on high 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 235 

land where aromatic herbs are abundant, and particularly 
among juniper bushes, and in bad weather carefully housed 
and well fed. Horse-chestnuts are an excellent article for 
fodder in this case; also a mixture of juniper berries, worm- 
wood, sage, gentian, angelica roots, willow bark and other 
bitter herbs, with a little salt and grain, which they will eat 
of their own accord, or if not, it should be administered in 
small quantities in the morning before they are driven to 
pasture. If the rot makes its appearance in a decided man- 
ner before the winter sets in, it is useless to attempt any 
thing more than to fatten the animal as soon as may be and 
sell him to the butcher. The rot certainly is not infectious, 
and it very often occurs that only a few sheep are attacked 
in large flocks ; and generally in such cases, if the shepherd 
is honest, the disease may be traced in every case to some 
swamp or other wet place, where these particular sheep may 
have strayed. 

The Mouth and Hoof Distemper. These complaints seem 
to have a mutual connexion, since the former, which is the 
mildest, very often precedes the latter. In the mouth the 
principal evil to be feared is that the sheep become emaciated 
from the inability to eat. The best remedy is to bathe the 
parts affected with a strong decoction of sage, mixed with 
an equal quantity of vinegar and a little honey. If the blis- 
ters continue to spread, half an ounce of blue vitriol should 
be added to a quart of this mixture. The disorder in the 
hoofs is soon discovered by lameness, and if this is evidently 
not produced by any external injury, and especi?lly if seve- 
ral sheep in a flock are attacked at the same time, great care 
should be taken to obviate the effects of this disorder. The 
best remedy is a poultice of dough or fat loamy clay, which 
should be applied to the foot by means of a little bag, but not 
tied hard to the ankle, and kept constantly wet with vine- 
gar, till a swelling appears on the upper side of the foot or 
in the cleft of the hoof. This should then be opened with a 
sharp knife and the dead hoof pared off'. The wound must 
be washed Avith cold water and sprinkled with dry vitriol. 
The lame animals should remain carefully separated from 
the sound ones, and the washing and sprinkling with vitriol 
repeated till the cure is effected. This disease is not only 
contagious, but also infectious in the highest degree, and 
oftentimes so violent as to produce caries in the bone after 
the hoof is destroyed. 

The Itch or Scab. This disorder is dreaded more than 



236 THE COMPLETE FAKTVIER 



1 

ricts^ 



any other, and did in fact more damage in many district 
than any other, until the proper mode of treatment was dis- 
covered. The scab is certainly contagious, and may readily 
be propagated by merely touching the skin of a healthy ani- 
mal with matter from a pustule on another sheep ; but as far 
as my observation has extended the infection is not conveyed 
through the atmosphere, though it often seems to be epi- 
demic, and particularly in very damp summers, which affect 
sheep in many other ways so unfavorably. 

It is discovered by the animal's constantly rubbing or 
scratching itself, and making at the same time a peculiar 
motion with the lips ; the scabs are sometimes dry and some- 
times moist, and spread very rapidly, though the animal con- 
tinues healthy in other respects, and generally more lively 
than before. Afterwards, however, the disorder becomes in- 
ternal, the sheep becomes emaciated, and dies from weakness 
and pain. If the scab is observed at an early period it may 
be easily cured, or at least prevented from spreading. One 
of the best remedies is a strong decoction of tobacco, to be 
applied to the diseased parts, after scratching off the scabs 
with a comb or other instrument. The decoction of tobacco 
mixed with lime-water and oil of vitriol, and used constantly 
for some time, will generally effect a radical cure ; another 
excellent remedy is a decoction of hellebore mixed with vine- 
gar, sulphur, and spirits of turpentine. Internal remedies 
are^of no use except when the disorder has induced other 
complaints by weakening the general health. 

The Sheep-Pox. This disorder is contagious and propa- 
gates itself by exhalation from the sick to the healthy ani- 
mal, but it has not yet been discovered how far these exha- 
lations may extend. If, however, it appears in a neighbor- 
ing flock, care should be taken to mitigate its effects by a 
general and careful inoculation, since it is certain that the 
disorder is less violent if taken by inoculation than in the natu- 
ral way. The operation is perfectly simple and easy. The 
animal is laid on its back and held by two or three men, 
while the operator introduces the matter, from a pustule five 
or six days old, in two or three places between the legs or 
on the tail. The lancet should be introduced in a slanting 
direction under the skin about an eighth of an inch, and 
when it is withdrawn, the skin should be pressed down upon 
it so as to wipe off the matter and leave it in the wound. A 
pustule is formed generally in four days, and reaches its 



AND RURAL EC0N03IIST. 237 

greatest size on the sixth, when a few others generally ap- 
pear near the first. 

Soon after this the usual symptoms of fever and general 
eruption take place, which last is, however, more regular 
and safe than if the animal had taken the disease without 
inoculation. 

The only care necessary during the progress of the dis- 
order is to keep the sheep in a cool and airy situation. In- 
ternal remedies are not required, but the sores should be 
often washed with a strong infusion of camomile flowers, in 
which a little blue vitriol has been peviously dissolved, and 
afterwards dressed with a salve made of yolks of eggs and 
turpentine, mixed with a little powdered charcoal. 

The Reeling Sickness is never infectious, but generally in- 
curable. Its first symptoms are a weakness in the gait, and 
a disposition in the animal affected to remain separate from 
the flock. The head is thrown into an unnatural posture, 
generally on one side. The animal then begins to turn round, 
always in one direction ; stumbles and falls repeatedly, some- 
times with the head under the body, then ceases to feed, and 
soon dies. 

Lambs and yearlings only are usually liable to this dis- 
order, and very rarely sheep over two years old. The seat 
of the disorder is always to be discovered on the brain, where 
one or more blisters are formed and filled with a watery 
secretion. 

The origin of this complaint, and of course the proper 
preventive treatment, remain as yet undiscovered. A cure 
is sometimes effected by an operation through the skull to let 
off the water. 

Tlie first step in this case is to examine the skull care- 
fully in search of a soft spot in the bone, which usually in- 
dicates the spot affected. The skull is then perforated with 
a trocar, accompanied by a tube through which the water 
may escape ; after which the tube also is withdrawn and a 
few drops of the essence of myrrh applied to the aperture. 
This operation is sometimes successful, but more often the 
reverse. If it succeeds, however, in only one cure out of 
five, it seems worth the trial, since without some relief the 
sheep must certainly perish. 

Swelled Paunch. VVhen sheep or other ruminating ani- 
mals eat more than they can digest, the food ferments in the 
stomach, emitting great quantities of gas, \\ hich stretcii this 
organ so as to draw together its apertures, the paunch be- 



238 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

comes excessively distended, the lungs oppressed, the breath 
and pulse obstructed, and the death is very sudden. 

This effect may be produced by fodder of any kind, but 
most readily by such as the sheep prefer, especially if they 
are n^t accustomed to it. Green clover and lucerne have, 
therefore, often been observed to bring on this disorder ; but 
it is nevertheless certain that neither of these substances are 
in themselves injurious, since I have known sheep accus- 
tomed to them eat their fill day after day for months together 
without suffering any ill consequence. Any young green 
feed is more likely to be hurtful in this way than dry fodder, 
but only when eaten in excess after long abstinence. If the 
approach of the swelling is observed by the shepherd in sea- 
son, it may be prevented by violent friction of the back and 
belly and driving the sheep rapidly. These remedies are 
assisted by a previous dose of lime-water, which should 
be repeated half an hour afterwards, taking care that the 
lime is good and not previously air-slacked. 

If the attack is so violent as to leave no time for these 
remedies, an opening must be made in the paunch with the 
trocar and sheath ; an operation which cannot easily be de- 
scribed, but may be exhibited without any difficulty to any 
person unacquainted with it. 

I omit to notice a great variety of T)ther diseases of sheep, 
which I have had no opportunity of attending to personally, 
and also the whole series of external injuries to which sheep 
are liable, and in the treatment of which each man's experi- 
ence is his best guide. 

A writer for the New York Farmer observes, ' I am told 
on credible authority, that a gentleman who was losing his 
sheep without apparent cause had occasion to use some clay 
about his house in the winter, and observed that his sickly 
flock ate it with avidity ; he caused a load to be placed in 
their yard, much of which was devoured and his sheep speedi- 
ly recovered. 

As a cure, therefore, I would recommend clay to be placed 
in the sheep-yard, which can, at worst, do no harm, as the 
animals will not eat it unless prompted by instinct ; or, when 
it is practicable, the boughs or branches of resinous trees, as 
the pine and hemlock, may be given to the flock in limited 
quantities. Roots of any edible kind will also be highly 
serviceable. As a preventive in future, I advise sheep-far- 
mers to raise and lay in a good stock of ruta baga or other 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 239 

turnips, which are not only the healthiest but cheapest food 
for the winter consumption of sheep. 

Worms in the head of Sheep. There exists in some parts 
of the country a species of fly, which naturalists call CBstriLS 
ovis, of the same genus with that which deposits eggs in the 
hair of horses, and causes bots. This fly attacks sherp, 
from about the middle of August to the middJe of Septem- 
ber, deposits its eggs in the nostrils of the animals, and cau- 
ses those worms which so frequently destroy them. The 
Mechanic's Gazette recommends as a preventive, 'covering 
the nostrils of sheep with a list of gauzy substance, through 
which the animal can breathe, and keeping it in its place by 
some adhesive substance.' We doubt, however, the practica- 
bility of ' keeping it in its place' by any ' adhesive substance.' 
Another preventive which sheep owners tell us is efl^ectual, 
is to keep the noses of the sheep constantly smirched with 
tar, from about the middle of August to the latter end of 
September. If the sheep swallow some of the tar, so much 
the better, as it prevents or cures the rot, and confirms their 
health. 

If the fly has performed its mischievous function, and the 
seeds of the disorder are already sown, you may make use 
of the following : 

' Take half a pound of good Scotch snufl^, pour two quarts 
of boiling water on it, stir it and let it stand till cold; inject 
about a table-spoonful of this liquid and sediment up each 
nostril of the sheep with a syringe. This must be repeated 
three or four times at proper intervals, from the middle of 
October to the first of January ; the grubs are then small 
and are much easier destroyed than afterwards, and have not 
injured the sheep, as they will if deferred until later. Half 
an ounce of assafoetida, pounded in a little water and added 
to the snxiff, will make it more efliectual. The owner of the 
sheep need not be alarmed, when the operation is performed, 
to see the sheep very drunk and apparently in the agonies 
of death, as they will in a few minutes recover. I never 
knew any bad efl^ects to follow. Dry snuff'may be blown up 
the nose with a quill, and have a good efl^ect ; but it is a te- 
dious, dirty job. I have tried vinegar and blue die with but 
little or no success.' 

Instead of ' Scotch snufl^,' a decoction of tobacco will 
answer the purpose. A gentleman who owns a large flock 
of sheep, informs us that he had used it with perfect success. 
Spirits of turpentine have been injected into the nostrils of 



fc 



240 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

sheep, as a remedy for worms ; but that substance appears to 
possess one material disadvantage, M^hich should preclude its 
ufc,e for that purpose, viz. when thrown into the nostrils it 
kills the sheep as well as the worms. 

Mr. Alexander Reed, of Washington, Pennsylvania, in an 
article on the management of sheep, published in the New 
England Farmer, vol. iii. p. 60, observed that daubing the 
sheep's nose with tar is considered as a protection against 
this enemy. What experience I have had is rather calculat- 
ed to strengthen this opinion. I have always made free use 
of tar among my sheep, and I do not know that I ever lost 
one by the worms in the head. 

It is said by Fome writers that if sheep are kept in good 
condition there is no danger of their suffering greatly from 
worms in the head ; as they will be strong enough to expel 
the insects by sneezing. This may be, but still, the applica- 
tion of tar to the noses of the animals would prove servicea- 
ble by preventing their being teased by the fly, which causes 
great pain and distress at the time the nits are deposited, as 
well as eventuates in the disease of the shoep. 






HORSE, one of the most useful of tame quadrupeds. 
The marks or evidences of a good one are these : a high neck, 
a full breast, a lively eye, a strong back, a stiff dock, full but- 
tocks, ribs reaching near to the hips, well-made hoofs, rather 
large, and a good gait. 

The size of a horse should be in proportion to the work 
in which he is chiefly to be employed. Small sized ones 
often prove ffood in the sadc^le. They are apt to be hardy, 
and in proportion to their size, and the quantity of their eat- 
ing, usually are the most profitable. Plough horses, and all 
draught horses, should be large, as their Avcight is of impor- 
tance in drawing ; as it is often inconvenient to put two 
horses to one plough, especially in horse hoeing. Largeness 
is also of importance, when they are used single, in journey- 
ing, as they most usually are, in a chaise or sleigh. 

A horse's manner of going is a matter of no small impor- 
tance. The ambling gait, or what in this country is vul- 
garly called pacing, is not good, neither for the horse nor the 
rider. It is tiresome to both. It habituates a horse to carry 
his feet too near to the ground, so that he is the more liable i 
to trip and stumble. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 241 

The method so much practised formerly in this country, 
of teaching horses to pace swiftly, and racing in that gait, is 
highly pernicious. It puts them to a much greater strain 
than runninij ; and numbers have been thus ruined. Sjine 
colts naturally amble, ard others trot. But all may be made 
to trot, if due care and pains be taken with them while they 
are young, or as soon as they are first ridden. In a carriage 
an amble is tiresome to a horse, appears highly improper, and 
is disgusting to every one ; and I do not see why it should 
appear at all more tolerable in the saddle. 

When any change of gait is wanted for the ease of the 
rider, the canter is to be preferred, than which none can be 
more easy. - 

The way of breaking a young horse that is mostly used in 
this country is highly absurd, hurtful, and dangerous. He 
is mounted and ridden before he has been used to the bridle 
or to bearing any weight on his back. If he will not go for- 
ward, he is most unmercifully beaten ; by which his spirits 
are broken and his strength impaired. If he rears up, he is 
pulled backwards, with the risk of hurting both horse and 
man. If he runs and starts, as he probably will under such 
management, he flings the rider, perhaps is frightened, gains 
his liberty, and is encouraged to do just so the next opportu- 
nity ; and the unfortunate rider blesses himself, as he has 
reason to do, if he escapes without broken limbs. Or if 
the horse should chance to go kindly, the rider continues 
the exercise till the horse is fatigued, discouraged, and injured. 

Instead of this mad management, the way practised in the 
older countries should be adopted. Let a horse first of all 
be tamed with the bridle, by leading him again and again ; 
in the first place, after or by the side of another horse ; and 
after he walks well, bring him to trot after his leader. In 
the next place, put on the saddle, and lead him in that, time 
after time. Then lay a small weight on the saddle, and if 
he be apt to start, fasten it, that it may not be flung off'; in- 
creasing the weight from time to time, till he learns to carry 
what is equal to a man's weight. Lastly, let a man gently 
mount him, while another holds him by the bridle, and fix 
himself firmly on the saddle. The place of riding is recom- 
mended to be a ploughed field. Let him thus be ridden with 
a horse going before him, till he learn the use of the bit, and 
will stop or go forward at the pleasure of the rider, and 
without the application of much force. Being exercised in 
this manner a few times, and treated with all possible gentle- 
21 



242 THE COMPLETE FAKMER 

ness, there will be no more occasion for leading him. He 
will go well of himself; and be thoroughly broken, without 
so much as giving him one blow, and without danger or 
fatigue to the horse or his rider. And, what is much to be 
regarded, the horse's spirits will be preserved, though he be 
sufficiently tamed. In teaching a horse to draw, gentleness 
must be used. He should be tried first in company with 
other horses, whether in carting or ploughing ; and the 
draught should not be so heavy as to fret him or put him to I 
great exertion till he has learned to draw steadily. After ' 
this he may be put to draw light loads by himself. Lastly 
he may be put to a pleasure carriage, but coupled with 
another rather than alone, and to a sleigh rather than a 
chaise. I 

It may be taken for a general rule, that the gait which is j 
easiest to a horse will be the easiest to his rider ; for jaded j 
horses, it has always been observed, are apt to go hard, and ! 
to tire their riders. I 

The feeding of horses, as I conceive, has not been suffi- j 
ciently attended to in this country ; which is, doubtless, one | 
reason why they are in general so mean and despicable. j 
Too many keep horses Avho cannot well afford to feed them. 
They should neither run upon the roads and commons, nor | 
in pastures that are filled with wild and water grasses. They 
love a dry pasture, not too much shaded, and short grasses 
of the best kinds. Clover and white honey-suckle, both 
green and dry, are excellent food for them. It nourishes , 
them well, and prevents costiveness, which is very hurtful to f 
them. The best of clover hay will keep them as well as 
most other kinds of hay with oats. 

To fit a horse for a journey he should not be suffered to 
grow too fat and gross. He should for some time be kept in 
the stable rather than in the pasture, and fed mostly with 
hay and provender ; but rather sparingly if he incline to be 
fat. He should have exercise daily, to harden his flesh and 
keep him in the habit of travelling. He should be shod some 
days before he begins a journey, that the shoes may be well set- 
tled to his feet, and the nails a little rusted at the points, that 
they may hold the faster. And the pads of the saddle should 
be well fitted to his back, so as to fill the hollows, and bear 
equally on every part. And while he is on the journey, he 
should be stabled every night. It is destructive to expose a 
horse to the dampness and cold of the night after severe ex- 
ercise. But it would be best if neither horses nor any of 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 243 

our cattle were wholly confined to dry meat in winter. 
Horses indicate this by their eating snow with their hay. 
Set a basket of snow within reach of a horse, when lie is at 
his manger, and he will take a mouthful from each alternate- 
ly. Of all juicy food for horses in winter, writers un hus- 
bandry seem to give carrots the preference. They have been 
found by experience to answer well instead of oats for labor- 
ing horses; and to fatten those which are lean. 

He that would be sure to keep his horse in good order 
must beware whom he suffers to ride him, and must see that 
he is never abused. Profuse r.wcting should always be 
avoided. And when a horse is much warmed by exercise 
he should' not be exposed to cold air nor night dew, and 
much less to rain and snow. If he cannot be instantly rubbed 
down and housed when warm, he should be covered with a 
blanket ; and he should always have a dry stable, and be 
well littered. The neglect of these precautions may bring 
on incurable disorders. 

Horses should not be too much deprived of the liberty of 
motion, as they too often are. Close confinement after hard 
labor will be apt to abate their circulations too suddenly, 
make them chilly, and stiffen their joints. To be deprived 
f;! 'notion is bad for man and beast. Horses therefore should 
not be straitened for room in their stables. Stables should 
not be so low as to prevent their tossing up their heads as 
high as they please. Some stables have so little room over 
head as to bring horses into a habit of carrying thci" heads 
too low ; they become afraid to lift them up. They should 
also have room in their stables to turn their heads to any 
part of their bodies, that they may defend themselves from 
the biting of insects, allay itching, &c. And their halters 
should always be so long, and their stable so wide, that they 
may lie down conveniently. Nor should horses be so placed 
as to be able to deprive each other of his fodder. 

When horses are kept in stables, as they generally are in 
the coldest half of the year, they should be daily dressed, as 
it is called. The curry-comb and the brush should be well 
used on all parts of their skin which are covered with hair. 
This increases perspiration through the pores of the skin, 
which is necessary to health ; and causes the blood to move 
faster in the veins. This treatment will not only cause them 
to look better, but they will have better health, and more 
activity and courage. They will digest their food better, 
and be better for service. But if rubbing and friction be 



244 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

wholly neglected, or slightly performed, the hair will appear 
dry and rough ; the perspirable matter hardens in the pores 
of the skin, or remains lodged at the roots of the hair, and 
has the appearance of a dirty white dust, and sometimes 
like small scales, attended with itching. More especially is 
rubbing necessary for horses when they are growing cold 
.after being sweated by labor. In such cases it should never 
be omitted. 

Columella observes, 'that the bodies of cattle ought to be 
rubbed down daily, as well as the bodies of men ; and says 
it often does them more good to have their backs well rub- 
bed down, than their bellies well filled with provender.' 

Bat in warm weather it would be best for them, that they 
should not have the confinement of the halter, nor even of 
the stable. A small spot of feeding ground, if it were only 
a few rods, adjoining to the stable, and the door left open, 
that a horse may go in and out alternately as he pleases, 
would greatly conduce to the health of the animal. This 
degree of liberty will be most needful when the flies are 
troublesome; and be better for him than confinement to a 
sti!)le that is perfectly dark. In fly time it gives a horse 
much ease and comfort to smear his limbs, neck, and head, 
with rancid fish oil, or something else that will keep the flies 
from attacking him. And in all seasons, when horses have 
been heated with exercise, they should be well rubbed or 
curriad. 

When a horse runs in a pasture during the grass season, 
he should have some shelter, not only a shade to defend him 
from the intense heat of the sun, but a shed, or a clump of 
trees, tiiat he may retreat from the inclemencies of the atmos- 
phere. 

Bat horses that are daily worked in summer should be 
mostly kept upon green fodder in stables, rather than grazed 
in pastures. The tendance of them will not be so burden- 
some, with a spot of high and thick grass at hand, as lead- 
ing them to and from a pasture, at the distance of a quarter 
of a mile. This will prevent their being often chilled by 
feeding in wet nights. A large quantity of manure will thus 
be saved. And a very small quantity of land will answer, 
in comparison with what it takes for the pasturing of a 
horse. Keeping a scythe and a basket at hand, a In rse 
may be foddered in this way in two or three minutes ; and 
by the time that the whole spot has been once mowed over, 
that which is first cut will be grown up again. Where a 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 245 

number of horses are soiled, a pair of poles, or a hand-cart, 
will be better than a basket to carry the hay to them. This 
practice, called soiling, answers well near cities and large 
towns, where lands for pasturage are not plenty ; and where, 
by means of the plenty of manure, lands may be made to 
yield the greatest crops of grass. For very thick grass 
should not be fed off; because the greater part of it will be 
wasted by the trampling and the excrements of animals. 

When grain is given to horses it is an economical practice 
to have it either ground or boiled. When horses are soiled, 
or fed in a stable on green grass, it should be cut and carried 
in duringf the morning: while the dew is on. 

A disorder, called ptyalism, has for some years past been 
gaining ground among horses in various parts of the United 
States, which is an excessive watering or slavering at the 
mouth. Various causes have been assigned for this disorder, 
but none of them satisfactory. Soiling them is, however, a 
certain remedy. 

The following remarks on the diseases of the horse were 
written by Dr. J. B. Brown, of Boston, and were first pub- 
lished in the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery. 

A knowledge of the diseases of animals, in general, cannot 
be inferred from a knowledge of the diseases of any one par- 
ticular species of animals. 

Thus he who is acquainted with the diseases of the horse 
would not from that circumstance be able to prescribe cor- 
rectly for the diseases of quadrupeds generally. The anato- 
my and physiology of animals differ. For example, the dog 
has no insensible perspiration. The mouth of the horse per- 
forms but one office, that of conveying food to the stomach. 
It conveys nothing to the lungs, or from them. It has no- 
thing to do with the modulation of his voice, as in most 
quadrupeds and in man. The passages to the lungs and to 
the stomach in the horse are distinct. 

The horse, unlike most other quadrupeds, has no gall- 
bladder, notwithstanding a work which has been through 
twelve editions, and one at least in this country, (Taplin's 
Farriery,) gives a particular description of the diseases of the 
gall-bladder, and the symptoms of those diseases. 

It has been stated above, that the anatomy and physiology 
of animals differ ; so also do their diseases. 

The horse is not subject to fever, that is, he has no simple, 
idiopathic fever, no cold, hot, and sweating stage, as man 
has. The feverish action which the heart and arteries of 
21^ 



246 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

the horse sometimes assume is sympathetic, and is always 
preceded by some local affection. It is a disease of irrita- 
tion. 

The eyes of the horse are subject to a species of cataract, 
that affects no other animal. It arises from a constitutional 
disease, brought on by bad stabling. It is never produced 
by local injury. This species of cataract commences with 
an inflammation of the conjunctiva, without any apparent 
cause. Local applications have no effect in removing it. 
The only rational method of treating it is to remove, if possi- 
ble, the constitutional disease, and improve the health and 
condition of the animal. 

Oxen and cows have the disease called hots in their skin, 
but in the horse this disease (if it may be so called) is con- 
fined to the stomach. 

Farcy and glanders, I believe, are diseases peculiar to the 
horse. I know of no other animal subject to them. They 
are contagious diseases, but may be produced without con- 
tagion, by bad stabling. The poisonous matter of farcy will 
produce glanders, and vice versa. Farcy is now ascertained 
to be a disease of the superficial absorbents ; whereas in all 
the old books on the veterinary art it is represented as a 
disease of the veins. 

A horse glandered has the whole mass of blood contami- 
nated. This may be considered by medical gentlemen as an 
important fact, as it goes to prove the doctrine of humoral 
pathology. That the whole mass of blood is diseased, in a 
horse affected with glanders, has been proved by the follow- 
ing experiment, made by Mr. Colman, professor at the Vete- 
rinary Institution, England. 

He took a young, healthy ass, an animal, as he states, 
peculiarly susceptible of the disease, and introduced a pipe 
having a stop- cock into the jugular vein, united by means 
of an ureter to another pipe, which he introduced into the 
carotid artery of a glandered horse. He then bled the ass 
to death by opening his carotid artery, and turning the stop- 
cock, admitted the blood of the horse into his vessels, and 
resuscitated him. The result was, that the ass became 
violently glandered He inoculated other asses from the 
matter produced in him, and was able to carry on the same 
disease. 

Corns in the feet of horses are very unlike corns on the 
feet of the human subject. There is nothing which grows 
in the feet of horses that constitutes corns. There is no in- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 247 

crease of substance. Corns in the feet of horses are mere 
bruises. Every body has seen or experienced the effects of 
bruises upon the human nail. Corns in the feet of iiorses 
are injuries of a similar nature. The red appearance which 
they have is caused by an extravasation of blood, which 
spreads itself among the fibres of the horny hoof Corns 
are generally occasioned by the shoe. They may, however, 
arise from other injuries. They are easily cured by suitable 
remedies and a proper mode of shoeing, unless the inflam- 
mation occasioned by the injury has been of long standing, 
and assumed a chronic character. In this case, the cure is 
more tedious. 

Horse-air. I will take this opportunity to make a few re- 
marks on the nature of this complaint. 

Strictly speaking, all diseases of horses are horse-ails ; but 
custom has given this epithet to a species of disease very 
common among our horses. The disease referred to is called 
strangles in most of the old books on farriery. It consists 
in an inflammation of the membrane lining the nose and the 
arytoenoid cartilages. This disease is accompanied by a 
cough and discharge from the nostrils. The cough is sym- 
pathetic, and is produced by the extreme sensibility of the 
membrane thus inflamed. The lightest dust, or even a drop 
of water lodged upon this membrane, in this irritable state, 
produces coughing. The inflammation sometimes extends to 
the lungs, and then this disease is accompanied with a dis- 
ease of the chest, and requires speedy and energetic treat- 
ment, as inflammation of the lungs in the horse is apt to ter- 
minate speedily in gangrene. Copious bleeding, from six to 
ten quarts at first, and smaller bleedini^s afterwards, as the 
state of the case may require, and small doses of aloes, from 
one to two drachms, given daily, have been found the most 
successful remedies in inflammation of the lungs. Drastic 
purgatives should be avoided, as they increase the irritation 
and put the life of the horse in extreme hazard. 

It has been stated above, that the diseases of animals dif- 
fer as much as their anatomy and physiology. The specific 
effect of medicine upon different animals is no less various 
than their structure and diseases. 

Glauber salts, in doses of one pound,' operate on the ox as 
a cathartic, but on the horse they operate principally as a 
diuretic. Castor-oil does not operate on the horse as a pur- 
gative, any more than train-oil or any other oil. 

Opium does not produce its specific efl^ect upon the horse. 



24S THE COMPLETE FARMER 

It operates merely as an astringent. It has no anodyne 
eifect, as it has upon man. It will not mitigate pain. It is 
unfortunate that most writers on the veterinary art have 
copied from each other, and have recommended medicines 
for the horse which are known to be useful to men. Thus 
calomel, rhubarb, and colocynth, have been recommended as 
purgatives for horses, whereas they are now known to have 
no such effect on that animal. 

Bark produces no sensible effect upon the horse. 

There are no medicines that operate on the horse as ipe- 
cacuanha and tartar emetic do upon the human subject. 

Tartar emetic, in doses of four ounces, will sometimes oc- 
casion a little nausea and purging, but in smaller doses it 
has no sensible effect. No preparation of mercury will pro- 
duce salivation in the horse. His gums may be made sore 
by mercury, but ptyalism cannot be produced by it. 

Sugar of lead, which is known to be a most deadly poison 
to man, the horse can take without injury. Tobacco has no 
deleterious effect upon the horse. 

Hellebore, in doses of half a drachm, produces a tendency 
to nausea in the horse. Hemlock is good food for ^oats, but 
a deadly poison to man ; and wheat, the natural" food for 
man, is poison to the horse. Spirit of turpentine, which an 
infant may handle without injury, operates as caustic when 
applied to the skin of a horse, although it may be applied to 
sores and fungous flesh on that animal without producing 
pain. — N. E. Journal of Medicine and Surgery. 

The following judicious remarks on the management and 
diseases of horses, «Scc., are taken from an English publi- 
cation. 

The Stable. As the preservation of health ought to be 
considered as an object of equal, if not superior, importance 
to that of curing or alleviating disease, and as it can only 
be accomplished by a proper management of the horse with 
respect to feeding, exercise, and the general economy of the 
stable, I think it proper to begin with this subject. 

In the construction of a stable there is, perhaps, no cir- 
cumstance more deserving attention than that of ventilation, 
or of having contrivances for the ready admission of fresh 
air, and for the escape of that which has been rendered im- 
jjure by"breathing ; and it is really extraordinary that so 
Jittle attention should have been paid to so important a cir- 
cumstance. Grooms in general make a point of closing eve- 
ry aperture they can find; and if, at any time, they are pre- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 249 

vailed upon to open a window, it is commonly so small, and 
so inconveniently situated, as to be but of little service. 
Let any one for a moment consider how foul an atmosphere 
must be produced in a close stable, in which several horses 
are kept, by the constant exhalation of unwholesome vapors 
from the litter, by the steams of perspiration fmm the skin, 
and by noxious airs from the lungs, and he v, tli not be sur- 
prised at the long- catalogue of diseases to which this impro- 
per treatment must subject these useful animals. 

If a doubt remain in the mind of any one as to the im- 
propriety of such close stables, let him enter one early in 
the morning, on its being first opened, and he will experi- 
ence such a painful sensation in the eyes, and so violent a 
cough, as will afford him the most convincing proof of the 
noxious and stimulating nature of such an atmosphere; yet 
such is the obstinacy and ignorance of grooms in general, 
that they cannot be prevailed upon to abandon this in- 
jurious practice. Even at this time stables are generally 
built too low, and unprovided with efiectuai means of ven- 
tilation. 

A stable should be as lofty as it can be made conveniently, 
at least twelve feet ; the foul air will then circulate in the 
higher parts, and the animal will not be constantly breathing 
an unwholesome atmosphere, which he must do when the 
ceiling is scarcely higher than his head. Proper apertures 
must be also made in the ceiling, communicating with the 
atmosphere by square wooden tubes, so contrived as not to 
admit the rain into stables ; the foul air and other unwhole- 
some vapors will then readily pass ofT, while a proper quan- 
tity of fresh air may be admitted by means of windows. 
The next circumstance to be attended to is nearly connected 
with, and not less important than ventilation ; namely, the 
so constructing a stable as to be able to regulate its tem- 
perature, or keep tlie air at any degree of heat that may be 
thought proper. It is generally allowed, that a uniform tem- 
perature in a stable is very desirable; and it is certain, that 
many of the diseases of horses are caused by sudden clianges 
in this respect. Even slight variations of temperature, if 
frequent, are injurious ; yet few stables are to be found 
where this inconvenience is effectually guarded against. To 
accomplish this desirable purpose, the windows should be in 
different sides, so that when a cold wind blows from any 
point it may be shut out, while fresh air is admitted by the 
opposite window. There should be several of the apertures 



250 THE COMPLETE FARM3R 

we have described in the ceiling, that they may be occasion- 
ally shut, either wholly or partially, so that, by means of 
these and the windows, the temperature can at any season 
be easily reafulated, according to the weather or state of the 
horse's health, more accurately if a thermometer be kept; 
an instrument which appears to be a necessary appendage to 
a well-conducted stable. If, during the cold Jays of winter, 
the contrivance we have proposed should be found insuffi- 
cient to raise the temperature of the stable to the desired 
point, the air may be easily warmed to any degree by means 
of stoves placed on the outside, with iron chimneys passing 
through the stable. It maybe placed in the saddle-room : 
this, however, is scarcely necessary. 1 

Light is also a thing of much importance in the construoB 
tion of a stable ; and, for the purpose of admitting it readily 
to every part, the windows should be large and properly 
placed. 

There is no doubt that the eyes of horses are often in- 
jured by dark stables ; and when a horse is just taken from 
a dark situation, it is easy to perceive that light at first irri- 
tates the eye and gives pain ; and this is more remarkable 
when he is brought suddenly into the sunshine; nor is it to be 
wondered at, that so delicate an organ as the eye should 
suffer materially from the frequent repetition of this sudden 
change. 

Though a light stable is desirable, the sunshine should 
not be allowed to fall on the eyes of a horse as he stands in 
his stall ; nor should the walls or ceiling be of a white color, 
as, under such circumstances, the eyes would be over stimu- 
lated and rendered weak : and when it is considered bow lia- 
ble horses are to diseases of these organs, and how frequent- 
ly they terminate in blindness, no one will think any circum- 
stance tending to their preservation too trifling to be noticed. 
With regard to the best color for the walls and ceiling, a 
stone or dove color is perhaps to be preferred, and may be 
made by mixing a little lampblack, ivory-black, or blue- 
black with the common white- wash. 

The door should be larger and higher than we usually see 
it ; for horses are very liable, in passing through a narrow 
or low one, to strike their hips or heads. I have seen some 
troublesome accidents happen in' this way ; besides, even if 
the hair be struck off about the hips, it is thought a blemish, 
because it may not grow again ; or, if it do grow, the hair 
may be white. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 251 

In fitting up the interior of a stable, particular attention 
must be paid to the size of the stalls, which should not be 
less than six feet wide, and the sides sufficiently high to pre- 
vent any sort of contact or communication between the 
horses. I know it will be urged as an argument against 
this, that they are sociable animals, and tliri^*^ better w^ith 
a companion than when alone ; this is certain 'y true : but, 
on the other hand, I am convinced, from long observation, 
that horses do not feel themselves in solitude when tliey are 
thus prevented from touching or playing with their neigh- 
bors ; besides, if we consider the numerous accidents that 
happen from low stalls, how frequently they kick or bite, 
and otherwise injure each other, there can be no doubt, I 
think, of the superior advantage of high stalls. 

The stalls should also be of considerable depth, that a 
horse may not, by drawing back, have the power of kicking 
those in the adjoiningr stalls. 

The floor of the stall should be made of hard brick, as a 
more equal surface is tlien formed than can be obtained by 
paving with pebbles. Very little declivity is necessary to 
drain off the urine , and as great inconvenience sometimes 
arises from sufi'ering a horse to stand in a stall where the 
fall is considerable, creating unnecessary exertion in the 
muscles of the hind leg, and keeping the ligaments constant- 
ly in a ter^e state, it has been recommended to make the 
drain in the middle of the stall, whereby the hind and fore 
feet of the horse might stand on a level. In whatever way, 
however, the stall is made, it should be carefully cleaned 
twice a day, that none of that putrescent matter may accu- 
mulate which generates ammonia, or that pungent vapor 
which is so abundantly found in close, filthy strbles. An 
iron rack is preferable to one of wood, being more easily 
kept clean, and furnishing no splinters ; which, where wood- 
en racks are used, sometimes injure the mouth. The man- 
ger may be oO contrived as to slide into the wall like a 
drawer ; and then, while the groom is wisping him, he would 
have nothing to lay hold of with his mouth, by which prac- 
tice horses often become crib-biters. The height both of the 
rack and manger should be such as to enable the horse to 
feed with the greatest ease : the former is sometimes made 
' so high that tlie horse is obliged to exert the muscles of his 
neck considerably in order to reach it ; and this has teen so 
placed, under an idea of its having a tendency to make him 
carry his head more gracefully : it is more probable, Low- 



252 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

ever, that the only effect of it is to make the horse uncom- 
fortable while feeding. It has indeed been lately recommend- 
ed, as the best plan, to place the racks on a level with the j 
manger, so that the horse may feed as he does in a state of | 
nature. This plan is a good one. It has been tried both i 
for wagon and saddle horses, that is, both single and double, 
and found to answer extremely well. It was observed, how- 
ever, that some horses would throw out part of the hay with 
their noses when it was of a bad quality ; but by placing 
one or more bars across on the upper part, from the front to 
the back, this was effectually prevented. The manger should 
be rather wide, and not less than eighteen inches deep. 
When a horse is fed principally with chaff or cut hay, a 
deep manger is particularly necessary, as many horses, in 
endeavoring to pick out the oats from the chaff, will throw 
out a great deal of the food with their noses when the man- 
ger is shallow. In larger stables, where many horses are 
kept, such as post or wagon stables, each stall is to contain i 
two horses, which will require a space of twelve feet. Af I 
mpnger is placed at each end, and the hay crib in the centre. 
A very short halter is sufficient to allow the horses to lie 
down, and then there is no danger of entangling themselves 
with it, an accident that often occurs when long halters are 
used. La Fosse, in his Manuel d" Hippiatrique, says that the 
fall in the floor of the stall should not be more than one 
inch to two yards: and this, I think, is quite sufficient. 
The gutter behind the stall is commonly too deep, and often 
so placed as to be in the way of the horses' hind feet. 
When a stable is properly attended to, scarcely any gutter 
is required ; and when there is one, it should be very shal- . 
low and wide. 1 

When a stable is ventilated by means of a tube or chim- 
ney, it should be placed in the centre of the ceiling, the 
opening in which should be large, in proportion to the num- 
ber of horses kept ; it cannot well be too large, but may be 
contracted upw::irds, so as to have a conical shape, or it may 
be made so as to resemble a dome or cupola. It should be 
carried a few feet above the top of the roof, and have laterai 
openings by means of slanting boards, but closed on the top ; 
by which contrivance there would be a free communication 
with the atmosphere, and the rain would be effectually ex- 
cluded. 

There have been different opinions held with respect to 
the removal of the litter during the day ; but when we con- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 253 

sider how rapidly and abundantly ammonia or the volatile 
alkali is generated in it, and how injurious that vapor is to 
the eyes and lungs, there can be no doubt of the propriety 
of removing it. Dr. Egan, of Dublin, has discovered, accord- 
ing to Mr. Peall, that the urine of the horse begins to gene- 
rate volatile alkali very soon after it is voided ; and it is well 
observed by the same author, that if this vapor be capable of 
painfully stimulating a sound and healthy eye, its effects upon 
one that is inflamed, and consequently extremely irritable, 
must be both highly painful and prejudicial to the organ. 
In confirmation of this opinion, the author relates the folfow- 
ing experiment : A horse laboring under inflammation of the 
eye was removed from the stable, where he kept both eyes 
constantly shut, and placed in a cool, airy situation ; in the 
space of half an hour he began gradually to open his eyes, 
and in the space of two or three hours he kept them open 
boldly. The horse was again placed in the stable, and in a 
few ninutes he began gradually to close the eyes, and after 
an hour or two kept them constantly shut. Not satisfied, 
however, with this experiment, though it seems pretty con- 
clusive, the horse was again removed to the cool situation, 
and the same eflect followed as at first. If the vapors pro- 
duced by foul litter prove so injurious to the eyes, it cannot 
surely be less prejudicial to the lungs; and it is highly pro- 
bable that if coughs are not produced in this way, they are 
often aggravated and rendered incurable by those irritating 
effluvia. Another evil to be considered is the propensity 
observable in many horses to eat their litter. This is often 
the case with such as have a chronic cough, or are disposed 
to become brokenwinded, or have worms ; and in all these 
diseases there is nothing, perhaps, more likely to increase 
them than the animal's eating foul litter. It must be obvious 
that horses employed in severe labor should be allowed to 
lie down whenever they are inclined to do so ; but even then 
all the litter may be turned out early in the mornine, the 
floor of the stall swept perfectly clean, and a bed of fresh 
straw put in. If the foul litter be spread abroad in the open 
air, and shaken up two or three times during the day, the 
greater part would be again fit for litter, and, with the addi- 
tion of a little fresh straw, would serve to replace that upon 
which the horse has rested during the day. It has been 
said, that horses which stand constantly on litter are apt to 
feel the difference of the road and become tend3r-footed. 
Mr. Clark observes, that the heat arising from the litter occa- 
22 



254 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

sioTis a more than ordinary derivation of blood to the legs 
and feet ; and hence arise swelling or gourdiness ol those I 
parts, D-reasy heels, and stiffness or numbness. If the horse 
lies down for relief, the heat of the litter soon forces him to 
ffet up Prrain, and after repeatedly lying down, and forced to j 
let up immediately from the above cause, he attempts it no j 
farther ; he stands upright, or perhaps a little straddling, j 
often shifting the weight of his body from one leg to the 
other This erect position, in which he is obliged to stand, 
increases the swelling of his legs, &c., and recourse is then 
had to bleeding, purging, diuretics, &c. 

Lord Pembroke, in his Military Equitation, observes that 
after working, and at night of course, as also in lameness and 
sickness, it is good for horses to stand on litter ; it also pro- 
duces staling, &c. At other times, it is a bad custom ; the 
constant use of it heats and makes the feet tender, and causes | 
swelled legs ; moreover, it renders the animal delicate. j 

Swelled' legs may be often reduced to their natural size j 
merely by taking away the litter, which, in some stables,| 
where ignorant grooms and farriers govern, would be a great ^ 
saving of physic and bleeding, besides straw. i 

Lord Pembroke has noticed by repeated experiments, that j 
legs swell or unswell by leaving litter or taking it away, like 
mercury in a weather-glass. Mr. Blaine is of opinion, that 
the custom of standing on litter ruins more horses than all i 
the maus or stage-coaches put together ; that it is the fruit-, . 
ful source of contracted feet, and brings on that ruinous affec-|| 
tion with more certainty than the hardest work. In my i 
own stables (he says) no litter is ever suffered to remain | 
under the fore-feet during the day. The horses stand on bare ! 
bricks, which, in summer, are watered to make them more j 
cool ; by which means I have experienced astonishing benefit, j 
Behind, a little litter is strewed, because they are apt to kick j 
and break the bricks with their hind feet ; and because the lit- j 
ter thus placed sucks up the moisture of the urine, which, 
would be detrimental to the hinder feet, which are more lia'| 
ble to thrushes than contraction. 

Colts. ' " Colts are usually foaled about the beginning of 
summer, and it is the custom to let them run till Michael- 
mas with the mare, at which time they are to be weaned. 
When first weaned, they must be kept in a convenient house, 
with a low rack and manger for hay and oats ; the hay must 
be very sweet and fine, especially at first, and a little wheat 
bran should be mixed with their oats, in order to keep their 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 255 

bodies open, and nnake them eat and drink freely. When 
the winter is spent, they should be turned into some dry 
ground, where the grass is sweet and short, and where there 
is good water, that they may drink at pleasure. The win- 
ter after this, they may be kept in the stable, without any 
farther care than that which is taken of other horses. But 
after the first year, the mare foals and horse foals are not to 
be kept together. There is no difficulty to know the shape 
a foal is like to be of, for the same shape he carries at a 
month he will carry at six years old, if he be not abused in 
after keeping." 

' We often hear it lamented, that our breed of horses is 
bad. But 1 am convinced that, as our colts are managed, if 
we had any other breed, we should soon make it appear to 
be as mean as our own, if not worse. The abusing of colts 
in the first winter is the principal cause of their proving so 
bad ; for our farmers seldom allow their weaned colts any 
food besides hay, and that is not always of the best kind. 
So that they seldom fail of being stinted in their growth, in 
the first winter, to such a degree, that they never get the 
better of it. A colt that is foaled late should not be weaned 
till February or March, and should have oats daring the 
■\ -^ole of the winter. In some countries, they allow a young 
coit fifteen bushels. We need not grudge to feed them with 
meal, oats, and bran, besides the best of clover hay ; for they 
will pay for it in their growth. After the first winter, they 
will need no extraordinary feeding till they are grown up. 
Were the above directions observed, we should soon see an 
improvement of our breed of horses. They would be capa- 
ble of doing much greater service, and be likely to hold out 
to a greater age.' — Deane. 

For farther remarks on the management of colts, and 
training or breaking them for service, see page 67 of this 
work. 



MANGEL-WURTZEL. ' Field Culture of the Mangel- 
wurtzel Beet and the Sugar Beet. Soil and Preparation. 
The soil for these roots should be a loam, inclining to clay, 
in good tilth, well manured, and made fine to a good depth. 
John Hare Powel, Esq., corresponding secretary to the Penn- 
sylvania Agricultural society, in giving an account of his 
mode of cultivating this crop, says, " My soil was not natu- 
rally strong ; it has been gradually so much deepened as to 



256 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

enable Wood's plough, No. 2, drawn by four oxen, to plough 
fourteen inches deep. Fresh barn-yard manure was equally 
spread upon the surface, and ploughed under in the early 
part of April, in quantities not larger than are generally used 
for potato crops in this country. Early in May, the land 
was twice stirred with Beatson's scarifier, harrowed, rolled ; 
after stirred, harrowed and rolled again in the opposite 
direction." The soil on which Messrs. Tristram Little and 
Henry Little, of Newbury, Massachusetts, raised their premi- 
um crop in 1824, is a clay loam. In 1823, about three- 
fourths of the same was sowed with onions, and manured 
with about eight cords of compost manure to the acre. The 
other quarter was sovved with wheat without manure. In 
the fall of 1823, there were about ten cords of compost ma- 
nure drawn on the lot, and put in a heap. Most of the said 
compost was drawn from the salt marshes, when ditching 
the same ; the other part was from the barn-yard. In the 
month of April, 1824, the heap was thrown over, and well 
mixed. 

' Planting. Colonel Powel says, " The holes for the seeds 
were made by a wheel, containing pegs in its circumference, 
which penetrated the ground about an inch, leaving intervals 
of four inches ; the rows were made two feet asunder ; two 
capsules were dropped into each hole ; the wheel of a com- 
mon barrow was passed over them, thus compressing the 
earth, and leaving a slight rut for the retention of moisture." 

' Messrs. Tristram and Henry Little observe, that, " Be- 
tween the 8th and 11th of May, the land was ploughed and 
sowed in the following manner : — After one deep ploughing, 
the ground was furrowed two and a half feet apart, and the 
manure put into the furrows, and covered with a double 
mould-board plough ; a roller was then passed on the top of 
the ridge, and the seed dibbled in with the finger ov^er the 
manure, about six or eight inches apart." The quantity of 
seed, according to English writers, is four pounds to an acre. 
Mr. David Little, in obtaining a premium crop, sowed four 
pounds, but observed that he thought half that quantity 
would have been sufficient. 

' After-culture. In raising colonel Powel's crop, " A small 
cultivator, which I had contrived for the purpose, was drawn 
between the rows soon after the weeds appeared ; a three 
inch triangular hoe removed the alternate plants, leaving the 
others at distances varying from eight to twelve inches asun- 
der. The cultivator was twice used before the 20th of July. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 257 

The heavy rains of August made another hoeing necessary, 
and surcharged the ground so much with moisture, that all 
roots increased much less in that month than during the 
same time in the two last years." The Messrs, Little, "in 
the course of the season, thinned their plants, and left them 
from six to twelve inches apart in the rows. They were 
once hoed, and ploughed three times between the rows." 
Mr. Powel, in raising a previous crop, had placed the rows 
thirty inches apart, and left the plants six inches apart in 
the rows. He says, " I this year desired smaller roots, which 
might grow so closely as by their leaves to protect the soil 
as much"^s possible from the rays of the sun. My cultiva- 
tor, by its peculiar form, enabled me to cut off the weeds 
when the plants were so young, that, if I had applied the 
plough, their crowns must have been covered in many in- 
stances by earth occasionally falling from its land side. The 
failure which attends the cultivation of most root crops in 
drills, proceeds from the neglect of weeds in their early sta- 
ges. Four or five days of delay frequently make the diffe- 
rence of fifteen days in the labor of making clean an acre of 
ground. The same weeds which a boy with a sharp shingle 
could remove at the commencement of one week, may before 
the end of the next require the application of an implement 
drawn by a horse. 

' " I ascribe my success, in great measure, to the use of 
Wood's extraordinary plough, which enters the soil more 
deeply, and pulverizes it more perfectly, than any other I 
have ever seen, with equal force, in any country ; to the use 
of cultivators, which complete the production of fine tilth ; 
to the destruction of the weeds on their first appearance — 
leaving the smallest space upon which a horse can walk be- 
tween the rows ; and, above all, to planting the seeds of a 
proper kind npon a surface which is kept perfectly flat.'" 

' General Remarks. Agriculturists have not agreed whe- 
ther it is most expedient to plant the seeds of this root on 
ridges or on a level. Colonel Powel condemns planting on 
ridges in this country, as a practice not adapted to our soil 
and climate, in which vegetables are very liable to suffer by 
drought. He says, " Among the various practices into 
which we have been seduced by the plausible theories of the 
advocates of European husbandry, there is none which ap- 
pears to me more absurd than that which has led us to drill 
or dibble our crops on ridges. The English farmer wisely 
contends with the evils produced by too much rain; the 
22* 



258 THE COMPLETE FARMEE 

American husbandman should as anxiously guard against 
his most formidable enemy, drought. I am inclined to think 
that there is no crop cultivated in this state (Pennsylvania) 
which ought not to be put on a flat surface." The climate 
of New England, especially its northern part, is not so warm 
and dry as that of Pennsylvania, and in that part of the 
United States, perhaps, the nature of the soil should decide 
the question ; if dry, level planting, or if moist, ridge planting 
should be adopted. 

We have heard complaints from American farmers, that 
the seed of this root is slow and uncertain in coming up. 
Perhaps the seed or soil, or both, may sometimes be too dry 
at the time of sowing. A writer in the English Farmer''s 
Journal says, " I have of late years steeped my seed for at 
least forty-eight hours. I made an experiment with twenty 
sound seeds not steeped, twenty steeped twenty-four hours, 
and the same number steeped forty-eight hours ; every seed 
of the latter produced plants, which came up two or three 
days sooner than either of the others, and some of those not 
steeped did not come up at all." Mr. Cobbett, in treating 
of the culture of the common garden beets, {American Gar- 
dener, par. 198,) directs to soak the seed four days and nights 
in rain-water before it is sowed ; and observes, that the 
mangel-wurtzel should be cultivated in the same manner as 
the other kinds of beets. American writers, so far as we 
have observed, give no directions for soaking the seeds of 
this vegetable before planting ; and it is possible that the 
omission of this part of the process may cause the slowness 
and uncertainty of vegetation complained of. The capsule, 
or husk, which contains the seeds, is dry, and it requires a 
long time for the moisture which it may derive from the 
earth to penetrate this integument, so as to cause the seed 
to sprout. But if the soil be very moist at the time of sow- 
ing, soaking the seed had better be omitted. 

' Much has been written and said on the subject of strip- 
ping these plants of their leaves for feeding cows and other 
economical purposes. An English waiter observes, that six 
or seven crops of leaves and stocks may be taken off during 
the growth of the root. Women and children can take off the 
leaves, which is done as follows : they should place their 
hands on each side of the root, at the foot stalks of the leaves, 
leaving about six of the smallest central leaves between the 
fore-finger and thumb of each hand ; (the small leaves are to 
be left on the root to grow, to make a fresh top ;) then, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 259 

spreading the hand flat with their face downwards, push 
them boch at the same time towards the ground, and thus, 
by one motion, will the whole of the top of each root, ex- 
cept the small leaves to be left to form a fresh head, be re- 
moved without unsettling the root or its fibres, which would 
check its growth. Some affirm, that stripping the plant of 
its leaves is no injury to the root, and others are of opinion 
that the root is injured by this means. We have doubts, 
whether, in field cultivation, it will often be deemed expe- 
dient to expend time and labor in this manner. The thin- 
nings, or superfluous plants, however, should be preserved, 
as they make excellent food for milch cows or store swine. 

' Some cultivators affirm, that it is never worth the trouble 
to transplant these roots to fill vacancies. " I have seen," 
says an English writer, much labor and expense employed in 
transplanting into vacant spots, when the seed has not been 
dibbled thick enough, but have never seen the transplanted 
roots worth half the trouble ; the tap-root being broken in the 
drawing, nothing but the top and useless rough roots and 
fangs are produced. It has been remarked by other writers, 
that the most common cause of failure in transplanting this 
root is the taking them up when too small, before the plants 
have obtained strength and size sufficient to bear the opera- 
tion of transplanting. 

' Use. The following remarks are from a paper communi- 
cated to the trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultural so- 
ciety, by J. Lowell, Esq., president of said society. They 
are derived, principally, from a French publication, by the 
Abbe Rosier. 

' '* This root is very little affected by changes of weather. 
It is attacked by no insect ; drought afl^ects but little its 
vegetation. It prepares the land extremely well for other 
crops. It may be sown and treated precisely like the com- 
mon beet, except that it ought to stand eighteen inches 
asunder. 

' " In good land, they often weigh nine or ten pounds, and 
are stripped eight or nine times. In a light, sandy, but well 
manured soil, they sometimes weigh fourteen and even six- 
teen pounds each ! 

' " The first crop of leaves in France is taken off' in the 
latter end of June, or the beginning of July. In this coun- 
try, probably, the latter period would be preferable. The 
lower leaves, those which incline towards the ground, are 
those which are taken away, and care must be taken to pre- 



260 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

serve the top-leaves, or the crown of the plants. The leaves 
may be taken off every fifteen days after the first gathering. 
Oxen, cows, and sheep, devour them greedily, and fatten 
readily upon :hem. All domestic poultry eat them readily, 
when chopped fine and mixed with grain. Horses will feed 
upon them very well, mixed with chopped straw. Hogs also 
fatten upon them. 

' " Cows fed upon this root solely give a greater quantity 
of milk and cream, and of better quality for the first fifteen 
days, after which they grow too fat, and the milk lessens. 
The food of cows must therefore be varied. Oxen and sheep 
fatten very well upon them. Cows should have grass in 
proportion of one-third to the beet leaves, or every third day 
they should be turned to grass. In this mode their milk 
will be excellent. The trouble of gathering the leaves is less 
than that of gathering any other green fodder. It may be 
done by children, while men are required to cut other green 
food for cattle. It is the surest crop, since the plant will 
stand the longest droughts. The roots are gathered and 
treated like those of the common beet. The skin is very 
tender, and care should be taken to handle them so as they 
may not be wounded, as they will, in that case, not keep so 
well. In order to preserve the seed in purity, care must be 
taken to change the ground in which the seed beets are 
planted. The seed can be preserved, after it is gathered, 
three or four years, without injury. In giving these roots 
to cattle for food, they are first washed, and then cut up into 
pieces about the size of a nut. It is always best to accom- 
pany them, when given to horned cattle, with clover, or other 
hay or straw, and if the hay or straw has been previously 
cut fine, it will be preferable. If horses are fed with this 
root, with a proportion of hay or cut straw, (half of each,) 
they will be fat, vigorous, and healthy. If they are worked 
severely, a little oats or corn may be added. It is thus they 
are treated in Germany, where this root stands in the stead 
of meadows or grass lands, and whose excellent horses are 
well known. 

' " Hogs, fed upon them raw, after they have been cut up 
fine and mixed with milk or other drink, fatten as well upon 
them as upon boiled potatoes, by which the fuel and trouble 
of boiling is saved. 

' " As to the quantity given to animals, much will depend 
on the proportion of other fodder which you allow them. 
Cows fed twice a day in winter upon eighteen pounds of 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 261 

these roots at each time, together with four pounds of hay or 
chopped straw, will give as much and as good milk as in 
summer, and they will be kept in the best possible stLite. 

' " Oxen fed with forty weight of these roots per day, with 
ten pounds of hay, for one month, and after that with fifty 
weight per day of the roots alone, will be fat enough for sale 
in two months more. 

' " Any person disposed may, from the facts above stated, 
calculate how many cattle will be supported by a single acre 
of land on v/hich this plant is cultivated. 

' " Man can eat this vegetable throughout the year ; it is 
agreeable nnd healthy. No insect attacks it, and it suffers 
but little from the variety of the seasons. The leaves of 
this plant form alone an excellent food for every species of 
domestic quadruped, during four months in the year. Tur- 
nips and other vegetables are, besides, liable to be destroyed 
by insects, whereas this beet is not. The roots can be pre- 
served eight months in a sound state, while turnips are of 
little v^alue after March. In some soils turnips will not grow, 
particularly in those which are very stiff' or strong. The 
root of scarcity grows everywhere. The milk of cows fed 
on turnips has a bad taste; that of those fed on this plant 
is excellent, as is also the butter made from it. This forasre 
on green fodder comes also at the hot seasons, when almost 
all other green food is scarce, and sometimes not to be pro- 
cured. Cattle never get tired of it. In many parts of Ger- 
many, where it is raised with success, they prefer it to every 
thing else to fatten those large herds of cattle which they 
annually export to France. In feeding cattle with beets, the 
same dry food must be given which is usually given with 
turnips." 

' Colonel Powel observes, " My neat cattle prefer mangel- 
wurtzel to any roots which I have offered to them. I have 
found its effects in producing large secretions of ^ooc? milk 
very great. I selected, in November, two heifers of the 
same breed, and very nearly of the same age, and in similar 
condition ; they were fed in adjoining stalls, and have been 
fed regularly three times a day, by the same man. One of 
them has had three pecks of mangel-wurtzel and four quarts 
of corn-meal daily ; the other, four and a half pecks of 
mangel-wurtzel. The last, which has had mangel-wurtzel 
alone, is in the condition of good beef; the other is not more 
than what graziers call half fat. 

' " The application of mangel-wurtzel as food for sheep is 



262 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

not the least important of its uses. Ewes yean usually at 
the season when grass cannot be supplied. The health of 
themselves and the thrift of their lambs essentially depend 
upon succulent food being had. I am inclined to think, that 
no small portion of the success which English breeders have 
met, is to be ascribed to the large stores of roots which they 
always have at command. It cannot be denied, that Indian 
meal will of itself, in most cases, produce extraordinary fat- 
ness, as well as great size ; but I have been led to believe, 
that diseases are early engendered by this species of forcing, 
which is always expensive, and too often eventually destroys 
the animal which has been thus reared." 

' Messrs. T. and H. Little observe, as to the value of the 
roots for feeding stock, " there is a variety of opinions ; but, 
from a number of years' experience, we think them a valua- 
ble addition, and highly worth cuUivating. Comparing them 
with English hay, and we know of no better standard, in 
our opinion, three tons of mangel-wurtzel, or potatoes, (of 
the two, we value the mangel-wurtzel the highest,) are 
equal to one ton of hay, for feeding stock generally ; but 
for milch cows, we think two tons of equal value. For feed- 
ing store swine, mangel-wurtzel is the only root that we 
know of which we can cultivate and feed to profit. Six 
bushels of raw mangel-wurtzel we think equal to one bushel 
of Indian corn." 

' Quantity to an Acre. The premium crop of the Messrs. 
Little was thirty-three tons ten hundred weight and four- 
teen pounds on an acre. Colonel Powel inclosed certificates 
to the president of the Pennsylvania Agricultural society, 
showing that sixteen hundred and thirty-four bushels of man- 
gel-wurtzel, weighing seventy-eight thousand four hundred 
and forty-eight pounds, were produced upon one acre and 
fourteen perches ; and a part of the same field, containing 
thirteen contiguous rows, produced at the rate of two thou- 
sand and sixty-five bushels per acre, weighing forty-four 
tons five hundred and twenty-seven pounds. In Great Bri- 
tain, it is said that upwards of sixty tons have been raised 
on an acre. 

' Gathering and Preserving. In gathering the roots, care 
should be taken to cut off the leaves about half an inch 
above the crown, as they will not keep so well if cut more 
closely. Messrs. Tristram and Henry Little say, " As to 
the best mode of preserving them, we have tried divers 
ways, — by pitting them, by putting them into a barn and 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 263 

covering them with hay, and by putting them into the 
cellar; the last mode we think the best." Colonel Powel 
observes, that one of his crops was " piled in a cellar, in 
rows, as wood, and covered with sand." A writer in the 
English Farmer''s Journal observes, that he has practised, 
with success, the following mode of preserving this root : 
" I pack it in long heaps, about seven feet wide at the bot- 
tom. I begin by forming the outsides with tiie roots, not 
stripped of their tops ; tops outwards ; the internal parts to 
be filled with roots without leaves ; continue one layer over 
another, until the heap is about six feet high, and about two 
feet broad at top, which maybe covered with straw and 
earth ; the ends of the heap should be covered in the same 
way : the leaves form an efficient covering against rain and 
frost.". 

' Mr. M'Mahon's mode of preserving beets and other 
roots is as follows : " Previous to the commencement of 
severe frost, you should take up, with as little injury as pos- 
sible, the roots of your turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets, sal- 
sify, scorzonera, Hamburg or large-rooted parsley, skirrets, 
Jerusalem artichokes, turnip-rooted celery, and a sufficiency 
of horseradish, for the winter consumption ; cut ofl' their 
tops, and expose the roots for a few hours, till sufficiently 
dry. On the surface of a very dry spot of ground, in a well 
sheltered situation, lay a stratum of sand two inches thick, 
and on this a layer of roots of either sort, covering them 
with another layer of sand, (the drier the better,) and so 
continue the layers of sand and roots till all are laid in, giv- 
ing the whole, on every side, a roof-like slope ; then cover 
this heap or ridge all over with about two inches of sand, 
over which lay a good coat of drawn straw, up and down, 
as if thatching a house, in order to carry off wet and pre- 
vent its enterinof the roots : then dig" a wide trench round 
the heap, and cover the straw with the earth so dug up, to a 
depth sufficient to preserve the roots effectually from frost. 
An opening may be made on the south side of this heap, 
and completely covered with bundles of straw, so as to have 
access to the roots at all times, when wanted either for sale 
or use. 

' " Some people lay straw or hay between the layers of 
roots, and immediately on the top of them ; this I do not 
approve of, as the straw or hay will become damp and 
mouldy, and very often occasion the roots to rot, while the 
sand would preserve them sweet and sound. 



264 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

'"All these roots may be preserved in like manner in a 
cellar ; but in such a place they are subject to vegetate and 
become stringy earlier in spring. The only advantage of 
this method is, that in the cellar they may be had when 
wanted more conveniently during winter than out of the 
field or garden heaps. 

'■ " Note. All the above roots will preserve better in sand 
than in common earth ; but when the former cannot be 
had, the sandiest earth you can procure must be dispensed 
with."' 



RUTA Bi\GA. The following is an account of the 
method of cultivating ruta baga, adopted by Rev. Henry 
Colman, in obtaining a crop for which he received a pre- 
mium of twenty dollars from the Massachusetts Agricultural 
society, in the year 1830. From the New England Farmer, 
vol. ix. p. 284. 

Gentlemen — Accompanying this you have the certificates 
of a crop of ruta baga raised this year on my farm in Lynn. 
From these it will appear that on an acre, measured by a 
sworn surveyor, on one side of the field, there were gathered 
seven hundred and forty-one baskets full ; and that forty 
baskets of the above-named weighed at the town scales two 
thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds net weight. This, 
allowing fifty-six pounds to a bushel, the standard weight 
assumed by the society, would give a crop of nine hundred 
and three bushels to the acre. 

The turnips were planted on the 29th of June and 2d of 
July; about one pound and a half of seed was used for the 
acre ; and they were gathered and stored in cellars and in 
the barn, in the last part of November. 

The ground on which they grew is a good soil, neither 
wet nor dry, and bore the last year an abundant crop of 
onions, and corn the year preceding the last. It was well 
manured at both times, and in fine tilth. It was manured 
with at least six cords to the acre of barn manure the last 
spring, and sowed again to onions ; but th^ seed entirely 
faiung, it was ploughed, harrowed, furrows struck out, and 
about eight cords of barn manure spread in the furrows ; 
ploughed again so as by a back furrow to form a ridge over 
the manure, and the seed sown with a small drill-harrow on. 
the ridges, making the rows about twenty inches asunder. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 265 

As soon as the plants were of sufficient size, a drill-harrow, 
with small shares fixed to it, to cut off all the weeds, was 
passed through the rows; and the plants thinned with a 
small weeding hoe to the distance of about eight inches 
apart, and the vacant places filled up by transplanting from 
the supernumerary plants. They were once more harrowed 
and cleaned, which was a very small labor ; and owing to 
the very unpropitious weather, were not harvested until very 
late. Some of them were very large ; one weighed fifteen 
pounds, and many were nearly as large. The exact expense 
of cultivating the acre cannot be estimiited, as it was inter- 
mixed with'o+her farm work ; but the whole, from the sow- 
ing to the gathering, was not two-thirds of the labor usually 
bestowed on planting, cultivating, and gathering an acre of 
potatoes. 

My Swedish turnips the last year, of which I raised con- 
siderable quantities, were fed off to my oxen, dry cows, 
young stock, and fatting sheep. To the cattle they were of 
very great advantage ; and for feeding sheep, they proved 
the last year, by an accurate account, worth from ten to 
twelve and half cents per bushel. The man who has the 
care of my stock considers them as among the most profita- 
ble feed which can be given either to fatting or to store 
cattle. Three years' experiment has increased their value 
very much for these purposes in my own estimation. 
I am, gentlemen, very respectfully yours, 

Henry Colman. 

A correspondent in the New England Farmer, vol. xi. p. 
277, writes thus : 

' A wish to have others profit by my experience has in- 
duced me to send you, Mr. Editor, half a sheet of remarks 
on the culture of the ruta baga as a food for domestic ani- 
mals. I have cultivated from half an acre to three acres of 
this root every year for thirteen years in succession, and feel 
competent to give rules for its culture, and confidence in re- 
commending it as a valuable and profitable crop. 

' The soil must be rich and dry ; and the more it inclines 
to a sand loam the better. Clay is the worst, and wet soils 
will not answer at all. 

' Preparations. My general practice has been, to manure 
well a piece of pasture, or clover ley, from which the hay 
has first been cut, plough it handsomely over, and harrow it 
well. 

' Smoing, <^c. I sow in rows, at two and a half or three 
23 



266 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

feet, with a drill-harrow. The sooner the preceding opera- 
tions succeed each other the better. I have sown broad- 
cast, but the expense of thinning and culture is increased. 
A man will drill in three or four acres a day. We allow a 
pound of seed to the acre, though half this, properly dis- 
tributed, is enough. Sow from the 26th of June to the 10th 
of July. 

' Culture. I use a cultivator, that may be graduated to 
the space between the rows, drawn by a horse, as soon as 
the plants can be well distinguished. This is repeated in a 
few days, back and forward, and the implement carried so 
close to the drills, as to leave only strips of from four to ten 
inches, which are then thoroughly cleaned with a skim hoe, 
and the plants thinned to eight and ten inches' distance. 
The cultivator soon follows for a third time, and if necessary 
the skim hoe, when the crop is generally left till harvest. 
The great aim is to extirpate the weeds, and to do this while 
they are small. 

' Harvesting is postponed as long as the season will per- 
mit. The roots are then pulled up and laid on the ground, 
the tops of the two rows towards each other. The pullers 
are followed by a man or boy with a bill-hook, who with a 
light blow cuts the tops as fast as three or four can pull. 
Three men will in this way harvest, of a good crop, three 
hundred bushels in a day. The tops are gathered into heaps 
and taken to the yard in carts daily, for the stock, until 
they are consumed. An acre will give from five to ten cart- 
loads of tops. The roots are piled in the field if dry ; the 
pits, two or two and a half feet broad, covered with straw 
and earth, and as cold weather approaches, with manure, to 
prevent frost. N. B. With a crow-bar make one or more 
holes on the crown of the pit, which must be left open, to let 
off the rarefied air and prevent the roots from heating. 

* Vse. The tops serve for autumn. As soon as the mild 
weather of spring will justify, I break through the frost, and 
take the contents of a pit to my barn, and cover the roots 
with straw or hay. From thence they are fed to my stock, 
being first chopped up with a snik^ (Dutch meat-chopper,) 
or spade. They are excellent for sheep, especially for ewes 
that have young ; and hogs and horses eat them freely. 
Steamed, they are used in the north of England for horses 
as a substitute for grain. I have fattened sheep and bul- 
locks upon them with profit. They constitute, particularly 
from February to June, an excellent culinary vegetable for 



w 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 267 

the table. A bullock will thrive fast upon two bushels a 
day, and will consume hardly any hay, and requires no 
drink. 

' Product and Cost. My average crop has been six hun- 
dred bushels per acre, though others have raised much heavi- 
er products. The cost in manure and labor, when they are 
secured for winter, has been from two to three cents per 
bushel. 

' N. B. Cattle or sheep fattened upon this root should 
be kept from eating them for eight or ten days before they 
are slaughtered, otherwise the meat will have an unpleasant 
savor. J. B.' 



ENGLISH TURNIPS. Every farmer will find it profit- 
able to raise a quantity of these roots. The mangel-Avurtzel 
and the ruta baga, useful as they undoubtedly are, will not 
completely supersede, nor altogether supply the place of the 
old-fashioned English turnip. In the Memoirs of the Board 
of Agriculture of the State of New York, vol. i. page 26, we 
find the following remarks on the best mode of cultivating 
this valuable root. 

There is no difficulty in raising turnips on new land ; but 
it is very desirable to know the best mode of raising them, 
at least a small patch every year, on old farms. Mr. Henry 
De Bois, of this county, [Renssellaer] and major E. Carly, of 
Columbia county, say that they have succeeded in obtaining 
good crops several years in succession by the following pro- 
cess. Turn over a turf of old sward the first week in June. 
Yard your cattle at night on this, in the proportion of six 
head at least to a quarter of an acre, until the 20th of July. 
Then harrow lengthwise the furrows, so as not to disturb or 
overturn them, and sow in the proportion of about half a 
pound of seed per acre. 

' If it is not convenient to yard cattle upon it sufficiently, 
about two inches of well rotted manure harrowed in as 
above will do as a substitute. Mr. C. R. Colden applies the 
manure by strewing it in shallow furrows two feet apart, 
then buries the manure by two side furrows, and harrows the 
ground level, lengthwise of the furrows. This method re- 
quires less manure, and he has the advantage of hoeing the 
turnips in drills.' 

We recollect, likewise, that we have read in several of our 
New England newspapers, that fine turnips have been raised 



268 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

by ploughing up old sward gi'ound some time in June, har- 
rowing well, and sowing from the 1st to the 20th of July, 
and this without the application of manure. But there can 
be no doubt that folding sheep or horned cattle on the land 
thus ploughed would very much enhance the crop. 

All Auierican writers on this subject, whose works we 
have perused, advise to sow seed of the common English tur- 
nip as late as about the middle of July. They tell us that 
late sowed turnips are much the best for the table, and that 
they are less liable to be injured by insects, if sown so late, 
than when sown much earlier in the season. 

Turnips are frequently, if not most generally, raised in the 
United States as a second crop, and no doubt this practice 
is often very eligible and may be perfectly consonant with 
the soundest maxims of good husbandry. But when it is 
intended to make the most of your crop of turnips, or to obtain 
as great a product as possible for the purpose of feeding 
cattle, we do not perceive any objection to giving turnips a 
larger portion of the season to grow in than has been with 
us the general practice. 

An English writer on agriculture, whose remarks on this 
and other agricultural topics appear to us to be judicious, 
and to display a thorough knowledge of the subjects of his 
essays, says, ' It is not pretended that there lies anjr solid 
objections to early sowing of turnips, simply considered ; on 
the contrary, such seems to be the most proper means of ob- 
taining a full crop ; but the advantages of early sowing, 
whatever they be, are givei,i up, and the season postponed 
from near three to five months by way of retarding the 
growth of the crop, that it may last to a later period in the 
spring, and receive less damage from the frosts than that to 
whicli it would be liable in its early maturity. The disad- 
vantages attending this plan are a crop far inferior in weight 
to Avhat might be obtained from the land ; the very common 
risk of destruction from drought and fly. The weight and 
perfection of the turnips being the objects, the land may be 
got ready for them as for any other early spring crop, and 
the seed sown with the first warm showers. This will afford 
ample scope for resowing, should the first seed fail, of which, 
however, granting it to be good, and the land sufficiently 
fine, i believe there is scarcely any risk.' 

' As to any advantages of a crop previous to the turnips, 
nothing scarcely can stand in competition with the first crop 
of roots. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 269 

* The true turnip soil is a deep sand or sandy loam. Every 
gardener knows the proper time to begin hoeing turnips. In 
general, when the plants spread a circle of about four inches 
they are ready for the first hoeing. They are commonly 
left about a foot asunder, The second hoeing three weeks 
after the first.' 

Those who desire to go extensively and successfully into 
the turnip culture should raise their own seed from the finest 
transplanted roots. An English cultivator says, ' It is won- 
derful what a small quantity of seed suffices for an acre of 
ground, and indeed equally so how it can be delivered and 
spread over such a breadth. A pint might be more than 
enough, but it is usual to broad-cast a quart on an acre.' 

Dr. Deane's New England Farmer asserts that ' the quanti- 
ty of seed sown on an acre is never less than one pound, fre- 
quently a pound and a half, and by some two. According 
to the same work it is very necessary for the success of the 
crop that a heavy roller be passed over the field immediately 
after harrowing in the seed, provided the ground is sufficient- 
ly dry, or as soon as it is in a fit condition. By this means 
the clods are broken, and much of the seed that would other- 
wise be exposed to birds, &rc. will be covered and the surfg.ce 
rendered smooth and compact thereby, and consequently 
more retentive of moisture, which will greatly promote the 
vegetation of the seed and growth of the plants. 

If a quantity of lime were sowed over the field immediately 
after putting in the seed, it would probably preserve the crop 
against insects and prevent the turnips becoming spongy, as 
well as increase their size. Unleached ashes, soot, and plas- 
ter, have also been highly recommended as manure for tur- 
nips. Thomas Mellville, Jun. Esq., of Pittsfield, Massachu- 
setts, in raising a crop which received the premium from the 
Massachusetts Agricultural society in 1817, and which 
amounted to about seven hundred and fifty bushels to the 
acre, sowed his seeds in drills of twenty-eight inches the 21st 
of June, on ground previously well manured. The following 
day sowed on the acre thirty bushels slacked lime and fifteen 
bushels house ashes. 

What we have said about the early sowing of turnips we 
would merely suggest as a hint, or something to be thought 
of, and perhaps become a matter of experiment. It appears 
to us that our custom of sowing turnips so late in the season 
as is commonly practised, is an usage borrowed from British 
husbandry without duly considering the difference of our 
23^ 



270 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

climate from that of Great Britain, and the different uses to 
which this crop is commonly applied in the two countries. 
In England they usually feed turnips off the ground with 
sheep ; or draw them for neat cattle during the winter as 
fast as they are wanted, and often let them stand in the field 
till spring, to supply green food for sheep at the time of their 
yeaning, &c. But in the United States, this crop must be 
harvested in autumn and secured from frost ; and it would 
seem to be desirable that they should have had time to ob- 
tain their full growth before they are gathered. 

' Ellis, an old writer on husbandry, says, " Turnips sooted 
about twenty-four hours after they are up will be entirely 
secured from the fly." Some advise, and it may De well, if 
not too much trouble, to leach soot and sprinkle the young 
turnips with the liquor. M'Mahon, in treating of the culti- 
vation of turnips, says, " the plants should be left from seven 
to twelve inches every way ; this must be regulated accord- 
ing to the strength of the land, the time of sowing, and the 
kind of turnips cultivated ; strong ground and early sowing 
always producing the largest roots." 

' The width of the hoe should be in proportion to the me- 
dium distance to be left between the plants, and this to their 
expected size. 

' The critical time of the first hoeing is, when the plants, 
as they lie spread on the ground, are nearly the size of the 
palm of the hand; if, however, seed-weeds be numerous and 
luxuriant, they ought to be checked before the turnip plants 
arrive at that size ; lest, being drawn up tall and slender, 
they should acquire a weak and sickly habit. 

' A second hoeing should be given when the leaves are 
grown to the height of eight or nine inches, in order to de- 
stroy weeds, loosen the earth, and finally to regulate the 
plants ; a third, if found necessary, may be given at any sub- 
sequent period. 

* Here will the farmer exclaim against the expense and 
trouble of hoeing ; but let him try one acre in this way, and 
leave another of the same quality to nature, as is too fre- 
quently done, and he will find that the extra produce of the 
hoed acre will more than compensate for the labor bestowed. 

' Loudon says archbishop Garrie, a Scottish gardener of 
merit, tried steeping the seed in sulphur, sowing soot, ashes, 
and sea-sand along the drills, all without effect. At last he 
tried dusting the rows, v/hen the plants were in the seed-leaf, 
with quicklime, and found that effectual in preventing the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 271 

depredations of the fly. " A bushel of quicktime," he says, 
" is sufficient to dust over an acre of drilled turnips, and a 
boy may soon be taught to lay it on almost as fast as he 
could walk along the drills. If the seminal leaves are pow- 
dered in the slightest degree, it is sufficient ; but should the 
rain wash the lime off before the turnips are in the rough 
leaf, it may be necessary to repeat the operation, if the fly 
begins to make its appearance." ' 



POTATOES. Above two hundred and forty years have 
elapsed since the introduction of the potato into the British 
isles. During that period, it has been gradually making its 
way in the favor of the inhabitants; but its progress for a 
long time was very limited. So slight, indeed, was the esti- 
mation in which it was held, even after the era of the revo- 
lution, that we find the celebrated Evelyn, in the year 1699, 
giving directions to plant potatoes in the worst grounds. 
' Take them up,' he says, ' in November, for winter spending; 
there will enough remain for a stock, though they be ever so 
exactly gathered.' 

The potato began however to be extensively cultivated 
about the middle of the last century ; and now it is grown in 
every farm and cottage garden, almost without exception. 

If experience seemed to have proved beyond a doubt that 
this root may be deemed one of the most important vegeta- 
ble productions ; if, in the face of every assertion to the 
contrary, it be found a very valuable and, generally speak- 
ing, a most salubrious article* of diet, and admirably 
adapted to supply nutritious food for animals and poultry ; 
it becomes a serious interest to determine with certainty 
that mode of culture which shall at all times, and in all situ- 
ations, tend to produce the heaviest crops, and of the finest 
quality. 

* It has been argued that the potato, at least under certain conditions, 
possesses a slightly poisonous quality. The idea may have originated in 
the botanic character of the plant ; in fact, it is one of the family of the 
nightshade, the solaiium tuherosum of Linnseos, and of the old natural or- 
der luridcB, which included plants whose appearance was described as be- 
ing * uusky, dismal, and gloomy.' The genus or family solanum is the 
type of that numerous tribe or order in the natural system, solanea, many 
of whose members exhibit great beauty of appearance and possess very 
useful properties. 



272 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

The common mode of planting and cultivating the potato 
is known to every cottager and farming man ; but that phi- 
losophic method which has recently been productive of enor- 
mous returns, may, perhaps, be referred chiefly, if not entire- 
ly, to the scientific president of the Horticultural society. 
This method it is my object to describe, through the medium 
of your pages ; but before I enter upon the detail of Mr. 
Knight's directions, I think it a duty to request the reader's 
attention to a few important results, the particulars of which 
have been stated to me in letters lately received from that 
gentleman. As facts, and very recent ones, they are pecu- 
liarly interesting, not only as they decisively show what 
may be, and has been effected during tl e late season, but 
also because they prove, to a demonstration, that science 
and hypothesis may go hand in hand with practice ; and 
that, when the latter is founded upon the former, it loses alto- 
gether its empirical character, and becomes established upon 
the most unassailable basis. 

Mr. Knight has observed, that he planted his potatoes 
"upon a soil natzirally poor and very shallow, upon a rock 
full of fissures, giving no more manure than is usually given 
to a crop of turnips ; the manure was mixed up with the 
soil, and not thrown into the drills at the time of planting. 
The plants suffered from drought during a part of the year ; 
nevertheless, he had very good crops from many varieties. 
These varieties he had himself originated from seed, and they 
possess the important quality of scarcely producing any blos- 
soms ; and therefore the vital powers of the plant are en- 
tirely employed in the production and support of those tube- 
rous processes, the potatoes, which are the sole object of the 
cultivator. The produce of two of the sorts is particularly 
stated to me, and is as follows : of the one, twenty-three 
tons two hundred weight seventy-six pounds ; and the 
other, twenty tons two hundred weight one hundred and 
one pounds, p£r acre. Of four other varieties he observes, 
' the produce exceeded twenty tons each per acre, all of good 
quality.' If the reader will reduce these weights to pounds, 
he will find them (reckoning the yield at twenty tons only 
per acre) to amount to five hundred and sixty bushels, each 
of eighty pounds weight. 

In the winter of 1831, I received a packet from Mr. 
Knight, inclosing several specimen potatoes raised by him. 
For the convenience of carriage, these were under the me- 
dium size, weighing about four ounces each; they were, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 273 

however, perfect in form and growth. Eight of them were 
selected and planted in a row, each widely apart one from 
the other. Prom these eight tubers, whose total weight was 
barely two pounds, I obtained a produce of one hundred 
and fifty-six potatoes, weighing, in all, sixty-nine pounds. 
Some roots yielded more than others ; one was peculiarly 
prolific; — it furnished eighteen pounds of potatoes, six of the 
largest of which weighed ten pounds. 

Having thus adduced a few general facts, it remains to 
point out the mode of operation by which such large results 
may be obtained. 

One of the chief, if not the primary, agent in effecting 
vegetable development and maturity, is light. Deprive a 
plant of that, and you either paralyze the operation of its 
vital principle, or induce imperfect and diseased action. The 
leaves of vegetables are the media upon which light acts; 
and, therefore, it should be the object of the gardener so to 
arrange his crops, that the utmost breadth of their foliage 
may be exposed to the full influence of the solar rays. 
Hence, the rows of potatoes ought to point north and south ; 
for, in the first place, plants so exposed command the great- 
est breadth and duration of light ; and in the second, the sun 
at the time of his highest meridian altitude, that is, at the 
hour of noon, shines directly along the extent of the rows; 
his light is also most equally distributed upon the whole 
foliage as he approaches to and recedes from the meridian. 
The perpendicularity of growth, which is of considerable 
importance to the complete success of the crop, is less likely 
to be disturbea by this mode of arrangement, than by any 
other that has heretofore been employed. It is generally the 
practice to plant small potatoes, or sets of large tubeis, cut 
with one or two eyes to each. These sets are planted in 
rows from sixteen to twenty inches asunder, and the sets 
about half that distance, or nine inches apart, without any 
consideration being had to the aspect or direction of the 
rows. As the stems advance in growth, they are very liable 
to fall over and become entangled one with another, thus in- 
tercepting the solar light, which then acts unequally upon 
the disorderly masses of foliage. Hence the crops become 
very unequal in point of bulk and weight. 

Mr. Knight's philosophical directions lead to a very diffe- 
rent result. He recommends the planting of whole potatoes, 
and those only which are of fine medium size, none to be of 
less weight than four ounces ; and he often prefers those 



274 THE COMPLETE FARBIER 

which weigh six or eight ounces. The earlier sorts, and, 
indeed, all which seldom attain a greater height than two 
feet, are to be planted about four or five inches apart in the 
rows, centre from centre, the croAvn ends upward ; tiie rows 
to be from two feet six inches to three feet asunder. The 
late potatoes, which produce a haulm above three feet in 
height, are to be placed five or six inches apart, centre from 
centre, in rows four or five feet asunder. 

When potatoes are thus planted in rows pointing north 
and south, the utmost energy of the light will be exerted, 
not only upon the foliage of the plant, but upon the surface 
of the intervening spaces of ground. If we suppose that the 
main crops will be planted at the latter end of March and 
during the month of April, the sun's meridional altitude will 
be advancing daily for at least nine weeks ; and during that 
period, the development and growth of the stem and leaves 
will be in a state of rapid progress. After the turn of days, 
and when the plants have attained their full growth, the sun 
will continue to exert its most powerful influence. Should 
the ground be of a proper texture and quality, the plants 
will stand erect, and the maturing process will proceed with- 
out interruption ; and after favorable summers, wherein 
there have been regular and moderate supplies of rain, par- 
ticularly during May and June, with a prevalence, however, 
of bright sunshine, the crops of potatoes will be regular, the 
tubers generally of a medium size, and the quality mealy, 
and altogether superior. If the soil be a strong mellow 
loam, enriched with much man .ire, the haulm will, in ail pro- 
bability, grow too rank, and finally fall over ; nevertheless 
the large spaces between the rows will grei^tly remedy this 
evil, for the sun's beams will act upon one surface at the 
least, and the matting and other injurious consequences re- 
sulting from close drilling will be prevented or obviated. I 
cannot refrain, in this place, from correcting an erroneous 
opinion, which almost universally prevails. We hear every- 
where of potato plants running away to haulm, and thus ex- 
pending their vital energy upon useless stem and foliage, in- 
stead of employing it in the production of tuberous roots. 
Now this remark is wholly opposed to philosophical fact, for 
invariably the strongest and heaviest bulk of potatoes is 
found attached to the most luxuriant haulm. The evil of 
over-luxuriance is not to be referred to the paucity of tube- 
rous product, for that is always great ; it is a consequence 
of an over-rich soil, which causes the haulm to grow so tall 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 275 

as to fall over, become entangled, and thus to lose the ma- 
turing influence of light. Hence, such haulm seldom ripens 
in due time ; it remains green even in December ; and the 
tubers, though large, numerous, and heavy, are immature, 
void of mealiness, and vapid in flavor. 

A fact of great importance to the growers of potatoes re- 
mains to be noticed. The outside rows-, and all smgle rows, 
will be found to produce far greater crops than any of the 
interior ro^vs of a plot in the garden or field. This depends 
upon a variety of causes, the chief of which is, the more 

f>erfect exposure of the foliage to the agency of air and 
ight. Mr.' Knight assures me, that he obtained from one 
outside row of an early seedling variety of the preceding 
year, which was two feet six inches exterior of an adjoining 
row, ' a produce equivalent to more than fifty-eight tons per 
acre. No conclusions,' he adds, ' can be drawn from the 
amount of produce of an external row. I mention it only 
to show the evormous influence of light' 

In this philosophical remark I cordially acquiesce, because 
experience has established its truth to my own satisfaction. 
I therefore earnestly recommend every cultivator, who has 
the opportunity of cropping upon long detached slips, in airy, 
open situations, to make the experiment of close planting in 
single rows, either whole potatoes or well-cut sets from very 
large potatoes, each to contain two eyes at the least. These 
sets should be taken from the crown end, or middle of the 
tuber, and not from liie lower or root end ; as I have found 
the latter to be comparatively unproductive. Sets may be 
planted at still less distances in the rows than whole tubers ; 
and although the preference ought, in all cases, to be given 
to a southern direction, where such can be conveniently 
given, still, for absolutely single rows, it is not indispensably 
required, because air and light will act on each side of the 
stem and foliage, and there will be no intervening shadow. 

The soil ought to be sandy and light, though moderately 
rich ; that is, if fine mealy and dry potatoes be required. It 
should not by any means be glutted with manure, and need 
not be deep. I have found no particular advantage in 
trenching for this crop ; in fact, I am credibly informed by 
an observant gentleman, who has travelled extensively, that 
in North America, the finest potatoes are produced in extra- 
ordinary quantities upon grass meadows, by simply turning 
up the turf by placing the grass surface downward upon 
them. 



276 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

With respect to the properties of this vegetable and the 
purposes to which it may be applied, the following observa- 
tions of an eminent physician may not be deemed inappro- 
priate. I extract them from the ' Pharmacologia of Dr. 
Pare. 

* Potatoes are found to produce, 

First, Cottony flax from the stalk. 

Second, Sugar from the root. 

Third, Potass by consumption. 

Fourth, Vinegar from the apples. 

Fifth, Soap, or a substitute for bleaching, from the tuber- 
cles. 

And, finally, when cooked by steam, the most farinaceous 
and economical of all vegetable food.' 

It is also known that much farina, or rather amylum, or 
starch, is yielded by grinding and washing the pulpy mass. 
My experiments in 1828 led me to ascertain, that a fine, 
mealy sort yielded from one-eighth to one-seventh of the 
total weight of the potatoes. This starch may be employed 
as a substitute for that made from wheat ; and as an article 
of diet, prepared as Indian arrow-root. It can also be intro- 
duced in making bread, though there is some difficulty in the 
manipulation. As food for all cattle of the farm — horses, 
cows, pigs, and likewise for poultry, potatoes are all but 
invaluable. Every creature appears to relish them, par- 
ticularly when they are steamed or caiefully boiled. It 
would be well worth the intelligent farmer's while to pay 
great attention to the use and effects of potatoes, raw and 
boiled. It is asserted that a cow may safely eat them in a 
raw state to the extent of, perhaps, fifty pounds per day, pro- 
vided the eyes have broken and began to shoot. Whenever 
they be given raw, however, they should be chopped into 
pieces to prevent accidents. The utility of raw potatoes is, 
however, doubted by many, and therefore the experiment 
requires close observation ; perhaps straw, hay, and chaff*, 
might be employed as a very proper adjunct, with a few 
ounces of salt added to each feed. Whenever steaming in 
the large way can be profitably employed, it must be an ad- 
vantage for pigs and poultry particularly ; and, in all cases, 
it would greatly tend to prevent the possibility of the danger 
of suffocation which has been known to result from the 
hurry and greediness with which cattle devour the raw roots. 
— British Farmer^s Magazine. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 277 

Potatoes renewed from Seed. ' Take the apples in the 
beginning of October [or whenever they are ripe] before the 
frost has hurt them ; hang them up by the foot stalks in a 
dry closet, where they will not freeze; let them hang till 
March or April ; then mash the apples, wash the seeds from 
the pulp, and dry them in a sunny window. Sow the seeds 
in a bed, about the first of May. When the plants are four 
or five inches high, transplant them into ground well pre- 
pared, one or two plants in a hill. They will produce full 
grown apples, and some of the roots will be as large as hen's 
eggs. But if the seeds were sown in autumn, some of them 
would com'e up in the following spring. Nothing is more 
common than their appearance in fields where potatoes have 
been raised the preceding year.' 

The process stated in ' Monk's Agricultural Dictionary,'' 
an English work, is similar to that mentioned by Dr. Deane, 
excepting that it is recommended in that work to hang the 
apples of the potatoes in a warm room till Christmas. Then 
wash out the seeds, spread and dry them in paper, and pre- 
serve them from damps till spring.' 

Potatoes thus obtained will produce roots of the full size 
the second season after sowing, when their qualities may be 
more fully ascertamed than they could well be the first sea- 
son. They will be found to vary very much from the kinds, 
from which the apples were gathered. It will be expedient 
to plant but one potato of the regenerated sorts in a hill, 
that you may keep each variety separate. Then, by keep- 
ing the produce of each hill by itself, and boiling one or two 
of each, you may ascertain which is bc#l; for the table : and 
by observing the quantity of produce in each hill, you may 
form a pretty good estimate relative to the productiveness of 
each sort. In that way you may introduce new varieties of 
potatoes, and supply yourself and neighbors, and eventually 
the market, with potatoes of a quality much superior to any 
of the worn out and degenerate kinds which are now to be 
found. The subject is of importance, and the man who will 
introduce new and improved sorts of potatoes, will deserve 
but little less of his country than he who improves our 
breeds of domestic animals. 



COTTON. {Gossypium.) There are many varieties of 
this plant, all of which are natives of warm climates, but 
24 



278 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

only four are cultivated. In Georgia and South Carolina 
two kinds are planted. One grows on the upland, has a 
short staple, with green seed. Another has black seed, and 
is cultivated on the islands near the coast. 

Pierce Butler, Esq. a successful cultivator, has given the 
following directions for raising this article : 

' If the land has been recently cleared, or has long remained 
fallow, turn it up deep in winter ; and in the first week in 
March bed it up in the following manner : Form twenty-five 
beds in one hundred and five square feet of land ; (being the 
space alloted to each laborer for a day's work ;) this leaves 
about four feet two and one half inches from the centre of 
one bed to the centre of the next. The beds should be three 
feet wide, flat in the middle. About the 15th of March, in 
latitude from twenty-nine to thirty degrees, the cultivator 
should commence sowing, or, as it is generally termed, plant- 
ing. The seed should be well scattered in open trenches, 
made in the centre of the beds, and covered. The proportion 
of seed is one bushel to one acre ; this allows for accidents 
occasioned by worms or night chills. The cotton should be 
well weeded by hoes once every twelve days till blown, and 
even longer if there is grass, observing to hoe up, that is, to 
the cotton, till it pods, and hoe down when the cotton is 
blown, in order to check the growth of the plant. From 
the proportion of seed mentioned, the cotton plants will come 
up plentifully, too much so to sufier all to remain. They 
should be thinned moderately at each hoeing. When the 
plants have got strength and growth, which may be about 
the third hoeing, to disregard w^orms and bear drought, they 
should be thinned, according to the fertility of the soil, from 
six inches to near two feet between the stocks or plants. In 
rich river grounds, the beds should be from five to six feet 
apart, measuring from centre to centre ; and the cotton 
plants, when out of the way of the worms, from two to three 
feet apart. It is advisable to top cotton once or twice in 
low 2frounds, and also to remove the suckers. The latter end 
of July is generally considered a proper time for topping. 
Gypsum may be used with success on cotton lands not near 
the sea. In river grounds draining is proper ; yet these 
lands should not be kept too dry. In tide lands it is benefi- 
cial to let the water flow over the land without retaining it. 
In river lands a change of crops is necessary. From actual 
experiment it has been proved that river tide lands, having 
the preceding year had rice sown on them, yielded much 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



279 



more cotton the succeeding year than they would have af- 
forded by a continuation of cotton. 

The mere growing of cotton is but a part of the care of 
the planter ; very much depends on classing and cleansing it 
for market, after it has been housed. Sorting it before it goes 
to the jennies, moteing and removing any yellow particles, 
are essential to assure a preference at a common market of 
competition. 



TOBA'CCO. {Nicotiana.) This plant is named from To- 
bago, one of the Caribbee islands. It was first introduced 
into England by the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, and from 
thence it spread over the other parts of Europe. 

In order to raise the young plants it is recommended to 
burn over the surface of a piece of ground early in the 
spring, rake it well, and sow the seeds. When the plants 
have acquired leaves the size of a quarter of a dollar they 
are fit for transplanting. They require a dry, light, rich 
soil, made mellow by ploughing, and folding is also advised. 
Dr. Deane observed that ' the common way of raising to- 
I I '"CO in cow-pens and barn-yards is detestable. The taste 
C.I such tobacco is intolerable. Transplant the young seed- 
lings when the ground is wet, as you would cabbage plants. 
Set them about three and a half feet apart, and weed them 
as you would growing cabbages. Destroy the large green 
worms, which are apt to infest this crop. 

When the plants have grown about three feet high, a little 
less or more, as they may be more or less, thrifty, their tops 
should be broken or cut off, excepting those designed for 
seed, which should be the largest. The tops should be taken 
off so early in the summer as to allow time for the upper 
leaves to grow to the same size as the lower ones. Of this 
time the cultivator must judge from circumstances, previous 
observations, or the advice of some person accustomed to 
raising tobacco. All the plants should be topped at the 
same time, whatever may be their height, that they may 
ripen together, and produce leaves nearly of the same size 
and thickness. The suckers which shoot out from the foot 
stalks of the leaves should also be broken or pinched off as 
fast as they appear. 

The ripeness of tobacco is known by small dusky spots 
appearing on the leaves. The plants should then be cut 



280 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

near the roots, on the morning of a day of sunshine, and 
should lie singly to wither. When sufficiently withered the 
plants should be laid in close heaps under cover to sweat 
forty-eight hours or more. After this they should be hung 
up under cover to dry. This may be done by running two 
stalks on the sharp ends of a stick about eight inches long, 
and suspending them across a pole about sixteen incnes 
apart, in a pretty tight apartment. As the plants become 
dry they may be placed nearer to each other, to make room 
for more, if necessary. When they have hung till there is 
no greenness in the leaves, and at a time when the air is damp, 
the leaves should be stripped off the stalks, tied up in hands, 
and packed away in chests or casks, well pressed down, 
and kept in a dry place, not in a cellar, which would soon 
spoil the tobacco. 

The use of tobacco for chewing and snuffing is uncleanly, 
unwholesome, and becoming unfashionable with the more 
respectable parts of the community. The habit of chewing 
it, however, is not easily broken. A writer for the National 
Intelligencer^ with the signature ' J. B.,' states, in substance, 
that he Avas suffering under a pulmonary complaint supposed 
to be brought on by chewing tobacco, and that by making a 
substitute of slippery elm bark, and swallowing the juice, he 
at once got rid of his disorder and his propensity to chew 
this poisonous plant. The dust or powder of tobacco, 
thrown over beas where plants are just coming up, preserves 
them from worms. It is said, also, that a few tobacco plants 
set out among cabbages and turnips, the tobacco plants about 
one rod apart, will save the cabbages and turnips from in- 
sects. 

M. M'Louvin, in Loudon's Magazine, observes as follows : 
' I procure from the tobacconists a liquor expressed from to- 
bacco, to every gallon of which I add five gallons of water ; 
this mixture, with Read's garden syringe, I sprinkle over the 
trees, putting it on the finest rose, and being careful to wet 
all the leaves ; this operation is performed only in the hot- 
test sunshine, as the effect is then much greater than when 
the weather is dull. In this manner I have this spring, with 
five gallons of liquor, reduced as above stated, cleaned seven- 
teen peach and nectarine trees, twelve of which average 
seventeen feet in length and twelve in height. The black 
glutinous insect, provincially called blight, so destructive to 
the cherry trees, is destroyed in the same way with equal 
facility. I have also found that the grubs which attack the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 281 

apricot may be destroyed almost instantly by immersing the 
leaves infested in this liquor. 

' When trees have got so bad that their leaves are much 
curled, some of the flies, being protected within the curl, will 
escape : in this case more force must be applied to the 
syringe, and in a day or two the trees should be looked over 
again, and whatever part of the leaves has not been wetted 
should be washed with a painter's brush ; but a careful per- 
son will render this process unnecessary by taking them in 
time.' 

Instead of liquor from the tobacconist, which may not al- 
ways and in all situations be easily procured, a strong de- 
coction of the stems or damaged leaves may be a cheap sub- 
stitute. The uses of tobacco in destroying lice on cattle, 
ticks on sheep, &c. are too well knovvn to render it necessary 
to make any observations on this application of a plant 
which seems to be abhorred by every animated being but 
man and the tobacco worm. But a quantity of tobacco 
ought to be grown by every cultivator, to enable him to 
wage successful war with insects. 



PLOUGHING, is the most important of agricultural ope- 
rations. On the manner in which this is performed depends 
all the subsequent operations of tillage on the same land. 
A large volume might well be written on this subject, but 
we shall confine ourselves to practical hints, expressed as 
concisely as is consistent with perspicuity. 

In all stiff, heavy, and adhesive soils, that are much dis- 
posed to moisture, it should be a common rule not to plough 
them while wet in any considerable degree, especially if 
there is much clay in their composition. When such land 
is ploughed wet, the particles of which it is composed are 
apt to cake, or run together into hard lumps, which require 
much trouble and labor to reduce to a fine state. Besides, 
much injury is produced by the treading of the team, and 
greater power is necessary in performing the operation. 
But, on the other hand, such soils are ploughed with much 
difficulty when very dry ; unless before the ploughing they 
were in a state of tillage, and not baked or bound down very 
hard. To break up grass ground composed of a strong loam, 
or a soil in which there is clay in any considerable quantity, 
when in a dry state, is next to impossible. You might al- 
24^ 



282 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

most as well attempt to plough up a brick pavement or slate 
rock. Green, sward in general can hardly be ploughed too 
wet, if it be not miry. Marshy, moory, and peaty or mossy 
descriptions of soil should in general, when already reduced 
to a state of tillage, be ploughed when the season is dry. 

In dry, sandy, and perhaps in some of the more mellow 
kinds of loamy soils, the business of ploughing may be per- 
formed when the earth is in a state of considerable moisture. 
But very dry sandy land, whenever the weather is hot and 
dry, should merely be stirred in such a way as may be ne- 
cessary to prevent the growth of weeds ; otherwise the 
great exhalation of moisture in such seasons may render 
them too dry for the vigorous vegetation of the seeds or 
plants which may be sown or growing upon them. The 
cultivators of this kind of soil have, therefore, many ad- 
vantages over others who are engaged in the more stiff and 
heavy sorts of land, in being able to perform the various 
operation! of arable husbandry with much less strength and 
expense of team, and by being much less interrupted by the 
wetness of the seasons. Stiff clayey soils, which are al- 
ready under the plough, may be beneficially ploughed in dry 
weather, and it is said that stirring such soils in a dry sea- 
son causes them to imbibe moisture, but in sandy soils the 
opposite result is produced by the same means. 

It is very fashionable, and, as a general rule, very correct 
to recommend deep ploughing. But this rule has a great 
many exceptions, and the cultivator who should be governed 
by it without regard to the nature of the soil and the pro- 
posed crops, would only labor hard to injure his land and 
reduce his products. 

It may not be amiss to attend to what some writers have 
observed respecting the dangers and disadvantages which 
attend ploughing deep without regard to the nature of the 
soil and other circumstances. It is observed in Dickson's 
Agriculture, that ' though deep ploughing has been recom- 
mended by some modern writers upon particular kinds of 
land, where the bottom and top were of two opposite quali- 
ties, and neither of them perfectly good, that a mixture may 
sometimes be very beneficial, and the experiment of going 
below the common depth sometimes answer ; but that when 
the top and bottom for eighteen or twenty inches depth con- 
sists of the same soil, it is not believed it is ever worth while 
to exchange the upper part, which has been enriched for 
centuries back, for a part less rich, merely because it is 



II 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 283 

more fresh. On retentive soils, where the practice of loosen- 
ing- them to some depth by other implements is omitted, deep 
ploughing is however extremely necessary.' 

In an ' Essay on the best means of converting Grass Lands 
into Tillage, by James Roper Head, Esq.,' published in Com- 
munications to the Board of Agricidture, vol. iii. page 346, 
it is observed that ' it seems reasonable to prefer light to 
heavy ploughing, because, all things being equal, it must be 
preferable to have a small depth of soil to cultivate and im- 
prove ; and inasmuch as the fibres of grass in general are fed 
from the upper surface of the earth alone, if they find suffi- 
cient pabulum, all that lie underneath their nourishment, 
and has been with much labor moved by the plough, is like a 
stock in trade, which requires an extra capital, unproductive 
of interest. 

' I have endeavored by all means to search into the nature 
of sainfoin, clover, and lucerne, and the result of my opinion 
has been that the long penetrating tap-roots of these grasses 
pierce the earth in search of moisture only ; that the tap- 
root is the mere syphon and duct ; that the branches of the 
crown of the plant are fed alone by the upper surface of the 
soil ; and that the luxuriancy of their produce depends not 
upon the congeniality of the bed or 7iidus [nest] of the tap- 
root itself, but on the congeniality of the soil of the upper 
surface, which alone feeds and furnishes it vegetation.' 

An article in 'Communications to the Board of Agricul- 
ture,' vol. iv. page 147, written by John M. Mardo, Esq., 
contains the fallowing statement : ' We have witnessed in- 
stances where old pasture lands composed of a gravelly loam 
were broken up in the spring for barley by trench plough- 
ing. The old sward was turned into the bottom of the fur- 
row, and a dry subsoil brought to the surface from a con- 
siderable depth. The crops failed entirely, and there ap- 
peared two very obvious reasons for the failure ; first, the 
subsoil brought to the surface to form the seed bed had long 
been deprived of the ordinary influence of tne atmosphere 
and the rains ; consequently must have been cold and in- 
fertile. Secondly, the dry tenacious sward having been 
placed half broken under the seed bed, the natural moisture 
of the ground, as well as that which falls in rain, was spee- 
dily and habitually evaporated. Unless in a season of un- 
common moisture, a crop under such preparation could not 
prosper.' 

A writer in the General Report of Scotland, Mr. James 



284 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

Brownhill, says ' Old leas, [grass grounds,] in my opinion, 
should be ploughed if possible not above four and a half 
inches deep by eight and a half or nine inches broad. If the 
old lea be a dry soil, it will plough very weW with those 
dimensions ; if it be ploughed deeper it must also be ploughed 
broader, as the furrows will not ply close to one another, 
unless you have breadth in proportion to the depth.' 

Sir John Sinclair speaks highly of the advantages of deep 
ploughing in some circumstances and for some crops, but says 
* it is a general rule never to plough so deep as to penetrate 
below the soil that was formerly manured and cultivated 
excepting upon fallow, and then only when you have plenty 
of lime or dung to add to and improve the new soil.' The 
farmers of Flanders, which is said to be the best cultivated 
part of Europe, gradually deepen their soil by ploughing or 
digging up iresh earth as their manure increases. Mr. 
Arthur Young likewise observes that in poor hungry soils 
some proportion ought to be observed between the uepth of 
a ploughing and the quantity of manure annually spread. 
The same writer informs us that the depth of ploughing in 
various towns of England, on an average, in sandy soils, was 
four inches ; in loamy soils four and three quarters, and in 
clayey soils three inches and a half. 

Disputes hav^e arisen among farmers in this country and 
in Europe relative to the best manner of laying the furrow 
slice. Some contend for turning the furrow slice completely 
over, and laying it quite flat ; but others allege that it is 
most advantageous to place each slice in such a manner that 
its outer edge may extend a little over the inner edge of the 
furrow which was drawn next before it. ' In several dis- 
tricts in England it is usual to lay the furrow slice quite flat, 
and this is particularly the case where there are no ridges ; 
but in Northumberland, and in Scotland, a contrary system 
is adopted. It is founded on this idea, that as two of the 
principal objects*in ploughing are, to expose as much as pos- 
sible to the influence of the atmosphere, and to lay the land, 
so that the harrows may, in the most effectual manner, raise 
mould to cover the seed ; these objects are most effectually 
accomplished by ploughing land of every description with a 
furrow slice about seven inches deep, and which, if about 
ten inches and a half broad, raises the furrow slice, with a 
proper shoulder, forming the angle forty-five, the point which 
ought to be referred to when determining between the merits 
of different specimens of ploughing. For that purpose, the 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 285 

depth of the furrow should, in general, bear a due propor- 
tion to the breadth, that is, about two-thirds, or as six inches 
deep is to nine broid. This is the general, if not the univer- 
versal opinion of the Scotch farmers.'^ The angle forty-five 
is strongly recommended in Bayley's Essay on the Construc- 
tion of the Plough, in his Durham Report, and in Brown's 
Treatise on Rural Afi'airs. In the southern counties of 
England, however, they generally prefer to turn the furrow 
quite flat, or horizontal ; and allege as a reason for that prac- 
tice that the weeds, grass, &c. ploughed under cannot well 
be smothered or withered unless the roots are turned com- 
pletely bottom upwards, and the turf covered so closely as to 
have no communication with the atmosphere. 

In Flanders, land is frequently cultivated by an implement 
called the hinot^ which is highly esteemed. By this instru- 
ment the land is not turned over, as by the plough, and the 
weeds buried ; but the soil is elevated and pressed into small 
ridges, and thus is better exposed to the beneficial influence 
of the winter frosts, and becomes much sooner dry in spring 
than when the land is turned over perfectly flat. When fur- 
row slices are set up edgewise by a plough, they become 
small thin ridges, are more easily pervaded by frost, and are 
in a situation to attract more of the fertilizing influences of 
the atmosphere, than when they are turned over so as to lie 
in a horizontal position. Perhaps this mode of ploughing 
land may be advantageous in stifl', hard soils, where several 
ploughings are necessary to prepare for the reception of the 
seed. If land of this description is broken up in the fall or 
summer preceding the sowing or planting of the seed, and 
cross ploughing in the spring is made use of, preparatory to 
putting in the seed, we are inclined to think that the ' feather 
edged ploughing,' as it is sometimes called, (in which the 
furrow slices are not laid so flat as to exclude the air from 
between and from the lower part of the furrow slices,) is to 
be preferred. ' Ploughing previous to winter setting in is of 
great use to clays, or stift^ lands, exposing the surface to the 
frost, which mellows and reduces it in a manner infinitely 
superior to what could be accomplished by all the operations 
of man. 't If, then, exposing the surface of stiff' soils to the 
frost is of great advantage, the more surface there is exposed 

* Code of Agriculture. 

f See Husbandry of Scotland, vol. i. p. 229, and vol. xi, Appendix, 
p. 26. 



286 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

the greater the advantage ; and if the furrow slices are set 
partly or entirely on their edges there will be, as before in- 
timated, more surface exposed than there would be if they 
were laid perfectly flat. And if they were turned in such a 
manner as to form an angle of forty-five degrees, the outer 
edge of the furrow resting on the inner edge of that which 
immediately preceded it, there would be but little chance for 
the weeds or grass to grow up between the furrows, which 
may be the case when the slices are set perpendicularly, or 
nearly so, on their edges. There will likewise always be a 
cavity under the edges of the furrow slices, containing stag- 
nant and sometimes putrescent air, which will enrich the 
soil. Moreover if ridge-ploughing is at all advantageous, we 
cannot see why a mode of ploughing which makes a ridge 
of every furrow slice, or at most a ridge by turning the edge 
of one furrow slice on the edge of its immediate predecessor, 
should not be likewise of advantage. Besides, by these 
modes of ploughing you form a covered or open drain or 
hollow place between the furrows, which, by carrying off 
superfluous water, will render the soil fit for tillage earlier in 
the spring than would be possible if every furrow slice was 
laid flit as it was turned upside down. The harrow will 
also more readily take hold of a soil where the furrow slices 
form little ridges or protuberances, and thus a proper mould 
will be procured for the covering of the seeds, or earthing up 
plants in a growing crop. And if there is danger of the lands 
lying too loose and hollow, repeated harrowing, and rolling 
it with a heavy roller after sowing, will furnish a remedy. 

Dry sandy soils, such as ought 7iot to be ploug-hed in 
ridges, should be turned over completely, and be laid and 
kept level as possible. Such soils, if rendered loose, and 
laid light by cultivation, will be robbed of their fertilizing 
particles as well by rain as by sunshine. In other words, 
they are liable to suffer by washing, by scorching;, and by 
too much draining. They do not need to be made any 
lighter, by ' feather edged ploughing,' or setting the furrow 
slices edgewise, being too light under ordinary cultivation. 
It is therefore ' a great advantage to such soils to fold sheep, 
or to consume the crops of turnips upon the ground where 
they are raised. These practices greatly contribute to the 
improvement of such soils, not only by the dung and urine 
thus deposited, but by the consolidation and firmness of tex- 
ture which the treading of sheep occasions.'"^ 
- — — ^ 

*Code of Agrriculture. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 287 

On the whole, although it wouJd not be possible to give 
general rules not liable to many exceptions, on the shape and 
position of the furrow slice, which should be cut and dis- 
posed of according to the vievvs of the cultivator, the nature 
of the ground, the proposed crop, &c., we are inclined to 
believe that Sir John Sinclair's maxim will appH' to most of 
our New England uplands. That eminent agriculturist 
says that ' the point which ought to be referred to, when 
determining between the merits of different specimens of 
ploughing, ib the angle of forty-five degrees.' That is, other 
things being equal, the nearer the furrow slice comes to 
forming an ?mgle of forty-five degrees with the horizon, the 
more perfect the specimen of ploughing. But another maxim 
of the same writer is equally worthy of attention. ' Dry 
soils being deficient in moisture ought to he tilled fiat, as any 
sort of dr\inings which the furrows might afford would be pre- 
judicial rather than advantageous. In Kent, dry land is left 
as level as if it were dug with a spade. The moisture is thus 
equally diffused and retained under the surface of the earth.' 

The following is extracted and abridged from an address 
delivered ^ ''ore the Middlesex Society of Husbandmen and 
Manufacturers ; by Elias Phinney, Esq. 

' In May, lS!i9, the field having lain three years to grass, 
and the crop ^i hay so light as to be worth not more than 
the expense of making, with a view of ascertaining the quan- 
tity of vegetable matter upon the surface, I took a single 
foot square of green sward, and after separating the roots and 
tops of liC gi'afses from the loam and vegetable mould, it 
was found on weighing to contain nine ounces of clear vege- 
table substance, giving, at that rate, over twelve and a quar- 
ter tons to the acre. This convinced me of the importance 
of taking some course by which this valuable treasure might 
be turned to good account. That a great part of this mass 
of vegetable matter is exposed to useless waste, by the usual 
mode of ploughing, cross ploughing and harrowing, must be 
obvious to any one. In order therefore to secure this, as 
well as the light vegetable mould at and near the surface, 
which is liable to waste from the same causes, I had two 
acres of the green sward of this field turned over with the 
plough, us smoothly as possible. After removing the out- 
side furrow slices into the centre of the plough land, and 
thereby effecting the double purpose of covering the vacant 
space in the middle and preventing ridges at the sides and 
ends, the field was rolled hard, with a loaded roller, by 
which the uneven parts of the furrow w^ere pressed down 



288 ' THE COMPLETE FARMER 

and the whole made smooth. It was then harrowed length- 
wise the furrows, with a horse harrow, but so lightly as not 
to disturb the sod. Twenty cart-loads of compost manure, 
made by mixing two parts of loam or peat mud with one of 
stable dung, were then spread upon each acre. It was then 
harrowed again, as before, and the poorer part of the soil, 
which had been turned up, and remained upon the suiface, 
was thereby mixed with the compost manure. Corn was 
then planted in drills upon the furrow, the rows being at the 
usual distance and parallel with the furrows. At hoeing 
time, the surface was stirred by running a light plough be- 
tween the rows, but not so deep at this or the subsequent 
hoeing as to disturb the sod. What Mr. Lorrain calls the 
' savage practice' of hilling up the corn was cautiously 
avoided. As the season advanced, I carefully watched the 
progress of my corn-field. In the early part of the season it 
did not exhibit a very promising appearance ; but as soon as 
the roots had extended into the enriching matter beneath, 
and began to expand in the decomposing sward, which had 
now become mellow, and more minutely divided by the fer- 
mentation of the confined vegetable substances beneath than 
it possibly could have been by plough or hoe, the growth 
became vigorous, and the crop, in the opinion of those who 
examined the field, not less than seventy bushels of corn to 
the acre. As soon as the corn was harvested, the stubble 
was loosened up by running a light horse plough lengthwise 
through the rows, the surface then smoothed with a bush- 
harrow, and one bushel of rye, with a sufficient quantity of 
herd's grass and red top seed, to the acre was then sowed, 
the ground again harrowed and rolled. The crop of rye 
was harvested in July following, and the two acres yielded 
sixty-nine and a half bushels of excellent grain, and over five 
tons of straw. The grass sowed with the rye took well, and 
the present season I mowed, what those who secured the 
crop judged to be, two and a half tons of the very best of 
hay from each acre. 

' Thus, with one ploughing, with the aid of twenty cart- 
loads of compost manure to the acre, I have obtained two 
crops of grain, and stocked the land down to grass.' 



IS 



HAY MAKING. It is a matter of much importance to 
the husbandman that he should take time by the foretop 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 289 

during the ssason for making hay. He must drive his busi- 
ness instead of being driven by it. Indolence or improper 
management in hay-time will soon give a sorry complexion 
to a farmer's affairs. A day or two lost or misemployed 
while the sun shines, and your grass suffers for lack of the 
scythe and the rake, or your grain is going hack into the 
ground, while the sickle is rusting on a peg behind the door, 
and its owner is asleep or gone a journey, may be the means 
of introducing Mr. Deputy Sheriff on your premises, who 
may do more harm than a crop of thistles or a host of Hes- 
sian flies. 

It is best, generally speakinof, to cut your very heaviest 
grass first"of all, and if it be lodged, or in danger of lodging, 
or the lower leaves and bottom of the stalks are beginning 
to turn yellow, although the grass is hardly headed, and ap- 
pears not to have obtained more than two-thirds of its growth, 
you had better begin upon it. But when you have help 
enough, and your grass stands up well, you will do best to 
wait till the blo.ssom is fully formed, and is beginning to 
turn brown. Clover is the most critical grass, and requires 
the most attention. ' In all cases,' says Sir John Sinclair, 
' clover ought to be mown before the seed is formed'^ that the 
full juice and nourishment of the plants may be retained in 
the hay. By the adoption of this system the hay is cut in 
a better season, it can be more easily secured, and is much 
more valuable. Nor is the strength of the plant lodged in 
the seed, which is often lost. 

' After beino: cut, the clover should remain in the swath 
till it is dried about two-thirds of its thickness. It is then 
not tedded or strewed, but turned over, either by the hands, 
or the heads of hay rakes. If turned over in the morning 
of a dry day, it may be cocked in the evening. The hay is 

*It may not be amiss, however, to state in this place, that agricultu- 
rists do not altogether agree on this point. In ' Memoirs of the New 
York Board of Agriculture,' vol. ii. p. 30, it is asserted that ' all the 
grasses are more nutritious if not mowed until the seed is fully grown. 
It should not be entirely ripened, however.' The Farmer's Assistant 
tells us that 'the best time for cutting herd's grass, [timothy] where but 
one crop is cut in the season, is when the seeds of the grass are fully 
formed, but before they have become fully ripe ; but as farmers cannot 
all cut their hay in a day or two, it is necessary that they should begin 
before this time, that they may not end too long after it. The same time 
is also proper for cutting clover; or rather when a part of the heads be- 
gin to turn brown. Foul meadow or birdgrass may be cut much later, 
without being hurt by long standing.' 
25 



290 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

as little shaken or scattered about afterwards as possible ; 
and if the weather is good, after remaining two or three 
days in the cock, it may be carted into the stack.' 

It is asserted by the ' Farmer's Guide,' that ' grass will 
not thrive well that is not mown quite close ; and the loss 
in the crop where this is not done is very considerable, as 
one inch at the bottom weighs more than several at the top.'' 

The fore part of the season for making hay is, we believe, 
usually attended with less rain than the latter part. The 
days, too, are longer, and the dews are less copious. Far- 
mers will, therefore, find additional motives from these cir- 
cumstances to industry and exertion in early hay-time. Be- 
sides, if haying is protracted till harvest commences, the 
business of one season presses on that of another, and some 
crops will be nearly or quite spoiled in consequence of not 
being gathered in due time. The forehanded and industri- 
ous farmer thus possesses great advantages over ono whom 
indolence or poverty induces to procrastinate the indispensa- 
ble labors of his vocation. 

Great advantages would result to the farmer, particularly 
in haying and harvesting, if he could form an estimate of the 
weather so as to be able to foresee with tolerable accuracy 
what would be its state for a few days, or even for twenty- 
four hours subsequent to the period of observation. Dr. 
Jenner's versified statement of ' Signs of Rain,' (published in 
the New England Farmer, vol. ii. p. 288,) may prove useful 
for this purpose, and the rhymes may assist the memory. A 
certain French philosopher, some years since, published an 
article, in which he asserted, in substance, that the web of a 
common spider is a sure index of the ^ate of the air for 
twelve or fourteen days to come. If the weather is to be 
fair and calm, the principal thread will be spun to a great 
length ; if, on the contrary, the weather is to be stormy and 
boisterous, the thread will be short and thick ; and if the spi- 
der is seen to repair the damages its slender thread may sus- 
tain, you may anticipate pleasant weather for many days. 
So says the philosopher, but we cannot vouch for the accu- 
racy of his saying. It may, however, not be amiss for the 
man of observation to pay some attention to this subject, for 
we know that the instinct of an insect is often more to be 
depended on than the researches of science. 

In this climate, a southerly wind, if it continues steadfast 
for forty-eight hours, is generally followed by rain. If the 
wind, however, shifts its course with the sun, or, as sailors 



II 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 291 

phrase it, goes round with the sun, in the morning blowing 
from the south, or east of south, and changing westerly as 
the sun advances, it generally indicates dry weather. If the 
wind shifts in a course opposite to the apparent course of 
the sun, rain commonly succeeds. If the wind continues 
southerly, and blows briskly through the night, it commonly, 
as the phrase is, ' blows up rain.' This effect of a south 
wind in this country may be thus accounted for. A souther- 
ly wind is a current of aii' which has its origin in warmer 
latitudes than those in which we are situated. This current 
in passing over the ocean imbibes or takes up as much water 
as air of its temperature can hold in solution. Passing into 
higher or* colder latitudes the air of the current parts with a 
portion of its heat or caloric, and cannot retain so much 
water as it held in its outset. Clouds or vapors are there- 
fore formed, and the excess of moisture is deposited in mist, 
rain, hail, or snow, according to circumstances, the season, 
&c. On the contrary a northerly wind, coming from a com- 
paratively cold latitude, acquires caloric as it advances, and 
with that acquisition its capacity for holding water in so- 
lution is increased. Therefore a northerly wind is a drying 
wind, and its predominance soon dissipates clouds and intro- 
(■ '-es fair weather. 

iiut to come down from the clouds to matters more within 
the reach of the reader. It has been often recommended by 
writers on agriculture to cart hay, particularly clover, before 
the stalks are dry, and either to put it up with alternate 
layers of straw, or to salt it at the rate of from half to one 
bushel of salt to the ton. 

' Salt hay in this country has usually been hurt by lying 
too long in the swaths. The method in which I hav^e treated 
it for several years, is, to cock it the PxCxt day after it is cut, 
and carry it in, without delaying more than one day, and 
put a layer of some kind of dry straw between load and load 
of it in the mow, to prevent its taking damage by over-heating. 
The straw contracts so much of its moisture and saltness, 
that the cattle will eat it very freely ; and the hay is far 
better than that made in the common way.'^ 

The making of herbage plants [such as clover, lucerne, 
sainfoin burnet, &c.] into hay, is a process somewhat diffe- 
rent from that of making hay from natural grasses. As 
soon as the swath is thoroughlj^ dry above, it is gently turn- 

* Deane's New England Farmer. 



292 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

ed over (not tedded nor scattered) without breaking it. 
Sometimes this is done by the hand, or by a email fork ; 
and some farmers are so anxious to prevent the swath from 
being broken, that they will not permit the use of the rake 
shaft. Another writer observes, that the practice of the best 
English, Flemish, and French farmers, is tO expose the hay 
as little as possible to the sun. It is carried in dry, but pre- 
serves its green color ; and we see hay of one or two years 
old in their market, of so bright a green color that we could 
scarcely conceive it to be cured. Yet they are in the prac- 
tice of preserving it for years, and value it more for its age. 
If such a course be best in climates so cool and cloudy, 
how much more important would it be under our scorching 
summer suns. 

'Bat if the weather be unsettled, or if showers be frequent, 
it may be better to spread grass well as soon as it is mowed, 
stir it often, cock it the same day it is mowed ; open it the 
next fair day, when the dew is off; let it sweat a little in the 
cock, and house it as soon as it is dry enough. It will bear 
to be laid greener on a scaffold than in a ground mow ; and 
in a narrow mow greener than in a broad one ; and that 
which is least of all made should be put upon the scaffold.' 
— Dsane. 

Sir John Sinclair is very explicit on the subject of ' mak- 
ing clover into hay.' ' The process,' he observes, ' is quite 
different from the plan of making hay from natural grasses. 
Mr. Lorrain gives us both sides of this question. He says, 
' I did not like to abandon the practice of curing hay in the 
swath, having observed that it saved labor. The grasses are 
at all times very expeditiously turned in the swath. If con- 
tinued rains occur, the swaths are not only quickly turned, 
but if the sun shines powerfully between the showers, the 
inside of them is not parched by its rays. By turning the 
swaths throughout long continued rain, as often as the un- 
der side of them was likely to be injured by fermentation, I 
have saved extensive fields of hay ; while my neighbors, 
who gave no attention to this interesting subject, had their 
crops entirely ruined. If the grasses, however, be raked up 
into small winrows, they are as readily turned, and may be 
as effectually preserved as if they remained in swaths, but in 
this case the labor is greater.' 

The same writer, however, in the next paragraph, takes 
other ground. ' Curing hay,' he observes, ' in swath, to save 
the juices, seems to be not only practically wrong, but also 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 293 

Opposed to reason. The confined heat and moisture in the 
interior of the swath promote fermentation, and must be 
more or less injurious to the nutritive matter contained in 
the glasses. It is exactly calculated to weaken the grasp of 
the leaves, and to separate them from the stalk. It also 
greatly weakens their general texture and causes them to 
crumble into pieces Avhen they become dry. While this is 
doing, the outside surface of the swath is scorched by the 
rays of the sun, and becomes but little better than straw, 
before the inside is moderately cured. In raking, cocking, 
heaping, and inning, the swaths are so far separated, that 
many of the leaves are lost before the hay gets into the 
mow ; but few of them get into the rack.' 

We have thus given both sides of the controverted ques- 
tion in agriculture, and our readers will take that which ap- 
pears to them most tenable. We confess ourselves rather 
inclined to embrace the opinions of a correspond'^nt who 
says, ' If it be correct to " make hay while the sun shines," it 
may be well to make it as quickly as possible ; but in this, 
as in many other processes, circumstances alter cases." 



HARVESTING. It is asserted, as a general rule, that 
the proper time to reap wheat or rye is when the straw be- 
gins to shrink and become white about half an inch below 
the ear. This appearance is a sure indication that the grain 
has ceased to receive nourishment from the roots of the 
plant ; and by cutting early, provided it is not taken to the 
barn or stack too green, the following advantages will be 
gained : 1st. The grain will make more and whiter flour. 
2d. There will be less wasted by the grain's shelling. 3d. 
By commencing harvest early, you will have a fairer pros- 
pect of finishing before the last cuttings become too ripe, so 
that much of the grain will shell out in reaping and securing 
the crop. 4th. If you cut your grain as soon as it will an- 
swer, your straw and chafTwill contain much more nourish- 
ment than if it were bleached and made brittle by the sun, 
air, dew, and rain, all of which combine to deprive it of most 
of its value for fodder. 5th. Should you plough in your 
stubble immediately after harvest, or mow it and secure it 
for fodder or litter, (either of which modes of management 
is perfectly consonant with the rules of good husbandry,) 
the stubble will make much better food for your cattle or ma- 
25^ 



294 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

nure for your ground, than if it had yielded all its sweets 
and much of its substance to the greedy elements above 
mentioned. 

If your wheat or rye is much affected by blight or rust, it 
should be cut even while still in the milk, and afterwards 
exposed to the sun and air, till the straw is sufficiently dry 
and the grain so much hardened that it will answer to de- 
posit in the barn or stack. The heads, in such cases, should 
be so placed by the reapers as not to touch the ground. This 
may be done by laying the top ends of each handful on the 
lower end of the preceding one. 

If your grain is encumbered with grass or weeds, you must 
cut it pretty near the top, in order to avoid as much as pos- 
sible those extraneous substances. It will also be necessary 
to reap somewhat earlier than might be otherwise expedient, 
that you may have time to dry the weeds without danger of 
the grain's shelling out. If your grain is very ripe when 
you harvest it, the bands should be made early in the morn- 
ing while the straw is moist and pliable. And Dr. Deane 
recommends, in such cases, to bind the sheaves when the air 
begins to be damp towards evening, as the least degree of 
moisture will toughen the straw. 

It has been recommended by several English writers to 
bind wheat as well as rye with only one length of the straw. 
If the straw is pretty long, and not very thoroughly dry, this 
may be good economy. You save the trouble of making 
bands ; your wheat will dry better in the sheaf; (as the 
sheaves must of course be small ;) and though it may take 
some more time and trouble to pitch and handle it, we believe 
the advantages, in many cases, will turn the scale in favor 
of binding wheat with single lengths of straw. 

In stowing wheat or rye, some persons deposit the sheaves 
on a mow of hay ; but this is a bad plan, as the grain presses 
the hay so that it is apt to become musty, and communicate 
a musty or mouldy taint to the superincumbent grain ; 
which will be harder to thresh than if it had a more dry and 
airy location. It may be placed on a scaffold of rails, laid 
on the beams, and over the floor of a barn ; though it is not 
so easy to procure it for threshing as if it were laid on a 
scaffold of less elevation. But this disadvantage may be 
more than compensated by its being in a situation favorable 
for drying. If there is a deficiency of barn room, the sheaves 
may be stored in stacks. In that case, ' care should be taken 
that the grain may not draw moisture from the ground, by 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 295 

laying boards, straw, or rubbish under the stack. A better 
way still is to have a tight floor of boards mounted on four 
blocks, set in the ground, and so high from the ground as to 
prevent the entering of vermin. 

' In building a stack, care should be taken to keep the 
seed ends of the sheaves in the middle, and a little higher 
than the outer ends. No fowls can then come at the grain; 
and the rain that falls on the outer ends will run off, and not 
pass towards the centre. The stack should be well topped 
with straw, that the rain may be completely turned off.' 

Oats. It is advised to harvest oats before the straw has 
wholly turned yellow. The straw will be of little value if 
permitted to stand till it becomes white and destitute of sap. 
Though oats should be well dried on the ground, after cut- 
ting, they should not be raked nor handled when they are in 
the driest state. They should be gathered mornings and 
evenings, when the straw is made limber and pliable by the 
moisture of the air. If they are housed while a little damp, 
there will be no danger if they have been previously tho- 
roughly dried. 

Barley. We are told by the wise men of agriculture, 
that some of the rules which should be observed in harvest- 
ing wheat, rye, and oats, will not apply to barley. Willich's 
Domestic Encyclopedia states, that, ' with respect to the 
time when barley is fit to be mowed, farmers frequently fall 
into the error of cutting it before it is perfectly ripe ; think- 
ing it will attain to perfect maturity if it lie in the swath. 
This, however, is a very common error, as it will shrivel in 
the field, and afterwards make but an indifferent malt ; it 
also threshes with more difficulty, and is apt to be bruised 
under the flail. The only certain test of judging when it is 
fit to mow must be from the dropping and falling of the ears, 
so as to double against the straw. In that state, and not 
before, it may be cut with all expedition, and carried in with- 
out danger to the mow. 

Dr. Deane's New England Farmer states, that ' some 
have got an opinion that barley should be harvested before 
it is quite ripe. Though the flour may be a little whiter, 
the grain shrinks so much that the crop seems greatly dimi- 
nished and wasted by early cutting. No grain, I think, re- 
quires more ripening than this ; and it is not apt to scatter 
out when it is very ripe. It :.hould be threshed soon after 
harvesting ; and much beating, after it is cleared from the 
straw, is necessary in order to get off the beards. Let it lie 



296 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

a night or two in the dew, after it is cut, and the beards will 
come off the more easily. 



DRAINS used in farming are of two kinds, open and 
covered. Drains should be of a size and depth proportioned 
to the extent of the swamp and the probable quantity of 
water for which they are designed to be channels. They 
should generally be carried through the lowest and wettest 
part of the soil, although it should be necessary, in order to 
effect that purpose, to deviate from straight lines. Open 
drains sometimes answer the double purpose of conveying off 
superfluous water and of inclosing fields ; but they make a 
hazardous and inconvenient fence without the addition of a 
bank, hedge, or railing. The Farmer's Assistant says, 
' When a ditch is made for a fence, it ought to be four feet 
wide at the top, one or less at the bottom, and about two 
and a half deep ; with the earth all thrown out on one side, 
and banked up as high as possible.' Sir John Sinclair states, 
that ' it is a general rule regarding open drains, Avith a view 
of giving sufficient slope and stability to their sides, that the 
width at top should be three times as much as that which is 
necessary at the bottom, and in the case of peat-mosses or 
soft soils, it should be such as to allow the water to run off 
without stagnation, but not with so rapid a motion as to 
injure the bottom.' 

But before you attempt to drain a piece of land, it will be 
well not only to calculate the cost, but to ascertain the nature 
of the soil which it is proposed to render fit for cultivation. 
If the subsoil or under layer be clay, the swamp may be 
worth draining, though there should be no more than six 
inches of black soil or mud over it, for the clay and the m-ud 
mixed will make a fertile soil. But if the subsoil or under 
stratum be gravel or white sand, it vAW not, in common cases, 
be best to undertake draining, unless the depth of black mud 
be as much as from fifteen or eighteen inches deep ; for the 
soil will settle after draining, and be less deep than it was 
before. But the situation of the land to be drained may 
authorize some variation from these general rules. 

The manner of draining a swamp is as follows : Beginning 
at the outlet, pass a large ditclx through it, so as mostly to 
cut the lowest parts. Then make another ditch quite round 
it, near to the border, to cut off the springs which come from 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 297 

the upland, and to receive the water that runs down from 
the hills upon the surface in great rains. These ditches 
should be larger or smaller, in some proportion to the sizo 
of the swamp, the shape and size of the hills which surround 
it, and other circumstances, which might tend to greater or 
less quantities of water being occasionally or generally led 
to the ditches. If the swamp be large, it may be necessary 
that some smaller cross drains should be cut in several of the 
lowest parts. The bottom of the main ditches, when the 
soil is not of an cxtr^rdinary depth, must be lower than the 
bottom of the loose soil ; otherwise the soil will never be- 
come sufficiently dry and firm."^ 

It is said by Sir John Sinclair, (Code of Agriculture, page 
182,) that 'in all drains it is a rule to begin at the lowest 
place and to work upwards, by which the water will always 
pass from the workmen and point out the level. This ena- 
bles the laborers also to work in coarse weather, and prevents 
iheir beincr interrupted by wet so early in the season as 
otherwise might happen.' 

The mud and other materials which are dug out of a ditch 
or drain should not be suffered to lie in heaps or banks by 
the side of the ditch, but should be spread as equally as pos- 
sible over the surface of the drained land. In this way, the 
matter taken from the ditches will tend to level the surface 
of the swamp, will, perhaps, serve in some measure for ma- 
nure, and will not present any impediment to the passage of 
the water to the ditches. In some cases it may be advisable 
to transport the earth which is taken from the ditches to 
the farm-yard or the hogpen, to form a part of that layer 
which good farmers generally spread over those places in 
autumn, to imbibe liquid manure, or make into compost with 
dung. In many instances, we are told, that the earth thus 
dug out of ditches is thought to be worth enough to pay for 
the expense of digging the ditches. 

The following communication on the subject of under- 
draining is from the New England Farmer, vol. x. p. 97 : 

Under draining. In a late number of the New England 
Farmer, my friend judge Buel, in an article on ' underdrain- 
ing,' was pleased to speak in favorable terms of my practice 
in this species of improvement, of my culture in general, and 
to ask for some communication on the subject. As no one 
in our country has more successfully blended theory with 

* See Deane's New England Farmer, article Drains 



298 THE Complete farmer 

practice in the various departments of husbandry than Mr. 
Buel, I appreciate this notice from one so competent to make 
improvements and so happy in his manner of detailing them 
to the agricultural community. 

As regards underdraining, and the many benefits resulting 
from it, my observation and experience fully corroborate all 
judge Buel has said in its favor ; indeed, without this saluta- 
ry and simple operation, no inconsiderable proportion of 
many valuable districts of our country must continue little 
better than waste. It is generally total loss of labor to the 
farnner who attempts to cultivate wet lands in our rigorous 
climate, and by draining, these useless inhospitable acres 
have been found of the kindliest and most productive cha- 
racter. 

Having a surplus of stones on my estate beyond what 
fences require, I use the smaller and ill-formed for drains; 
they have the advantage of brush in durability and of tiles 
in economy. My drains are, for the most part, three feet in 
depth, two feet in width at top, sloping to one at bottom. 
The bottom stones are largest, and are carefully placed to 
allow the water to flow freely beneath, while above the small 
stones are thrown in at random, so that when levelled they 
are beneath the plough. Over these SAvingle-tow, shavings, 
or straw, may be thrown, after which the earth^ can be re- 
placed by the spade or plough, so as to present a rather 
higher surface than the grounds adjacent, and the business 
is accomplished. It is very essential that the descent be 
easy, neither too quick nor too slow, and that all surface 
ivater be excluded, as it would speedily choke and destroy 
the underdraining. I estimate the average cost of such 
drains at sixty-two and a half cents the rod. It should be 
remarked, that underdraining is adapted to lands presenting 
sufficient declivity to carry off the springs, and it is only the 
under water that is meant to be drained in this manner, 
while open ditches are adapted to the bottom lands for the 
conveyance of surface water. I will state what appears to 
me the prominent advantages that the cultivator may pro- 
mise himself by a thorough system of draining. 

In the first place, he creates, as*it were, so much addi- 
tional terra firma, and adds essentially to the health of all 
around him, by correcting the ill tendencies of excessive 
moisture. He can cultivate reclaimf^d lands several weeks 
earlier and as much later in each year than those that are 
unreclaimed, his crops are better and more sure. The labor 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 299 

of after tillage is much diminished. The stones that impede 
the plough and scythe are removed, and not the least essen- 
tial benefit is the constant supplies of loater which may be 
insured in any field inclining to moisture, which, with refe- 
rence to animals, will, as a permanent convenience and ad- 
vantage, fully compensate the expense of drains. 

I have just put down a field of wheat which Vias required 
extensive underdraining. This field has required two hun- 
dred and fifty rods of stone draining, and I hope to be remu- 
nerated the whole expense in the surplus crops of the two 
next year*, to say nothing of the pleasure of witnessing the 
finest grains and kindliest grasses taking the place of bul- 
rushes and wild grass. 

I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 

Henry W. Delavan. 



PASTUIiE. To manage pasture land advantageously, it 
should be w^ll fenced in small lots, of four, eight, or twelve 
acres, according to the kirgeness of one's farm and stock ; 
and these lots should be bordered at least with xows of trees. 
It is best that trees of some kind or other should be growing 
scatterf^c in every point of a pasture, so that the cattle may 
never have to go far in a hot hour to obtain a comfortable 
shade. The grass will spring earlier in lots that are thus 
sheltered, and they will bear drought the better. But too 
great a proportion of shade should be avoided, as it will give 
a sourness to the grass. 

Small lots thus sheltered are not left bare of snow so early 
in the spring as larger ones lying bare, as fences and trees 
cause more of it to remain upon the ground. The cold 
winds in March and April hurt the grass much when the 
ground is bare. And the winds in winter will not suflfer 
snow to lie deep on land that is too open to the rake of 
winds and storms. 

It is hurtful to pastures to turn in cattle too early in the 
spring" ; and most hurtful to those pastures in which the 
grass springs earliest, as in very low and wet pastures. 
Potching such land in the spring destroys the sward, so 
that it will produce the less quantity of grass. Neither 
should cattle be let into any pasture until the grass is so 
much grown as to afford them a good bite, so t^at they may 
fill themselTOS without rambling over the whole lot. The 



i 



300 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

20th of May is early enough to turn cattle into almost any 
of our pastures. Out of some they should be kept later. 
The driest pastures should be used first, though in them the 
grass is shortest, that the potciiing of the ground in the wet- 
test may be prevented. 

The bushes and shrubs that rise in pastures should be cut 
in the most likely times to destroy them. Thistles and 
other bad weeds should be cut down before their seeds have 
ripened ; and ant-hills should be destroyed. Much may be 
done towards subduing a bushy pasture by keeping cattle 
hungry in it. A continual browsing keeps down *he young« 
shoots, and totally kills many of the bushes. Steers and 
heifers may mend such a pasture, and continue growing. 

But as to cleared pastures, it is not right to turn in all 
sorts of cattle promiscuously. Milch kine, working oxen, 
and fatting beasts, should have the first feeding of an inclo- 
sure ; afterwards, sheep and horses. When the first lot is 
thus fed off, it should be shut up, and the dung that has been 
dropped should be beat to pieces, and well scattered. After- 
wards, the second pasture should be treated in the same 
manner, and the rest in course, feeding the wettest pasture 
after the driest, that the soil may be less potched. 

Something considerable is saved by letting all sorts of 
grazing animals take their turn in a pasture. By means of 
this, nearly all the herbage produced will be eaten ; much of 
which would otherwise be lost. Horses will eat the leavings 
of horned cattle ; and sheep will eat some things that both 
the one and the other leave. 

But if in a course of pasturing, by means of a fruitful 
year or a scanty stock of cattle, some grass of a good kind 
should run up to seed and not be eaten, it need not be re- 
gretted ; for a new supply of seed will fill the ground with 
new roots, which are better than old ones. And I know of 
no grass that never needs renewing from the seed. 

A farmer needs not to be told, that if he turn swine into 
a pasture, they should have rings in their noses, unless 
brakes and other weeds need to be rooted out. Swine may 
do service in this way. They should never have the first of 
the feed ; for they will foul the grass, and make it distasteful 
to horses and cattle. 

Let the stock of a farmer be greater or less, he should 
have at least four inclosures of pasture land. One inclosure 
may be fed two weeks, and then shut up to grow ; then 
another. Each one will recruit well in six weeks ; and each 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 301 

will have this space of time to recruit. But in the latter 
part of October, the cattle may range through all the lots, 
unless some one may become too wet and soft. In this case, 
it ought to be shut up, and kept so till feeding time the next 
year. 

But that farmers may not be troubled with low miry pas- 
tures, they should drain them, if it be practicable, or can be 
done consistently with their other business. If they should 
produce a smaller quantity of grass afterwards, it will be 
sweeter, and of more value. It is well known, that cattle 
fatted in a dry pasture have better tasted flesh than those 
which are fatted in a wet one. In the old countries it will 
fetch a higher price. This is particularly the case as to 
mutton. 

Feeding pastures in rotation is of greater advantage than 
some are apt to imagine. One acre, managed according to 
the above directions, will turn to better account, as some 
say who have practised it, than three acres in the common 
way. By the common way I would be understood to mean, 
having weak and tottering fences, that will drop of them- 
selves in a few months, and never can resist the violence of 
disorderly cattle ; suffering weeds and bushes to overrun the 
land ; keeping all the pasture land in one inclosure ; turn- 
ing in all sorts of stock together ; suffering the fence to 
drop down in autumn, so as to lay the pasture commoa to 
all the swine and cattle that please to enter ; and not putting 
up the fence again till the first of May, or later. Such 
management is too common in all the parts of this country 
with which I am most acquainted. I would hope it is not 
universal. 

Land which is constantly used as pasture will be enriched. 
Therefore it is advisable to mow a pasture lot once in three 
or four years, if the surface be so level as to admit of it. In 
the mean time, to make amends for the loss of pasture, a 
mowing lot may be pastured. It will thus be imp oved : 
and if the grass do not grow so rank afterwards in the pas- 
ture lot, it will be more clear of weeds, and bear better grass. 
Alternate pasturing and mowing has the advantage of saving 
a good deal of expense and trouble in manuring the mowing 
grounds. 

Though pastures need manuring less than other lands, yet, 
when bushes, bad weeds, &c. are burnt upon them, the ashes 
should be spread thinly over the surface. The grass will 
26 



302 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

I 

thus be improved : and grass seeds should be sown upon the 
burnt spots, that no part may be vacant of grass. 

Sheep, calves, and horses, unless they are worked, it is 
said, require no water in their pastures. The want of water 
induces them to feed in the night, when the dew is on and 
the grass the more nutritious. Cows however want pure 
water. ' 

In pastures which are on side-hills, water may generally f 
be obtained by digging horizontally into the side of the hill, 
till it is found, and then carrying it out with a pipe. — 
Deane. 

' We learn from English writers on agriculture, that three 
modes have been adopted in Great Britain for consuming 
clover and other herbage plants by pasturing. These are 
tethering, or fastening the feeding animal to a stake, hurd- 
ling, and free pasturage. In the Agricultural Report of 
Aberdeenshire, it is stated that there are some cases in which 
the plan of tethering can be practised with more profit than 
even soiling. In the neighborhood of Peterhead, for in- 
stance, they tether milch cows on their grass fields, in a 
regular and systematic method, moving each tether forward 
in a straight line, not above one foot at a time, so as to pre- 
vent the cows from treading on the grass that is to be eaten ; 
care being always taken to move the tether forward, like a 
person cutting clover with a scythe, from one end of the field 
to the other. In this way, a greater number of cows can be 
kept on the same quantity of grass than by any other plan, 
except where it grows high enough to be cut and given them 
green in houses. In one instance, the system was carried to 
great perfection by a gentleman who kept a few sheep upon 
longer tethers, following the cows. Sometimes also he 
tethered horses afterwards upon the same field, which pre- 
vented any possible waste, for the tufts of grass produced by 
the dung of one species of animal will be eaten by those of 
another kind without reluctance. This mode was peculiarly 
calculated for the cow-feeders in Peterhead ; as from the 
smallness of their holdings they could not keep servants to 
cut or horses to carry home the grass to their houses, to be 
consumed in a green state. 

' In hurdling off clover or herbage crops, a portion of the 
field is inclosed by hurdles, [movable wooden fences] in 
which sheep are confined, and as the crop is consumed the 
pen is changed to a fresh place, until the whole is fed oflT. 
This practice is very extensively adopted at Holkham, [Eng.] 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



303 



and is peculiarly calculated for light and dry soils. Its ad- 
vantages are, that the grass is more economically consumed; 
that the stock thrives better, having daily a fresh bite ; and 
that the dung which falls, being more concentrated, is more 
likely to be of use.' — Loudon. 

Water should be provided for every field under pasture ; 
and also shelter and shade, either by a few trees, or by a 
portable shed, which may be moved with the stock from one 
inclosure to another. Where there are no trees, rubbing 
posts are also a desirable addition. In Germany they have 
portable sheds which are employed both in summer and win- 
ter, and ger.erally with a piece of rock-salt fixed to a post for 
the cattle to lick at will. 

Some graziers mix a few sheep and one or two colts in 
each pasture, which both turn to account, and do little injury 
to the grazing cattle. In some cases, we are told tliat sheep 
are beneficial to pastures, by eating down and destroying 
white weed, and some other useless and pernicious plants. 

So various is the appetite of animals, that there is scarcly 
any plant which is not chosen by some and left untouched 
by others. The following is said to be a fact, known and 
practised on by graziers in Holland. When eight cows have 
^ ' n in a pasture, and can no longer obtain nourishment, 
two horses will do very well there for some days, and when 
nothing is left for the horses, four sheep will live upon it; 
this not only proceeds from their difiering in the choice of 
plants, but from the formation of their mouths, which are not 
equally adapted to lay hold of the grass. 

Stockino; a pasture with as many sheep as it will support 
is recommended for forming a tender herbage, and causing 
the grass to mat or grow very thick at the bottom. 

An English writer says, ' in turning out horses to grass in 
the spring, it is usual to choose the forenoon of a fino day to 
do it in ; the natural consequence is, the horse fills his belly 
during the sunshine, and lays down to rest during the cold 
of the night, thereby probably exposing himself to disorders. 
In some parts of Yorkshire abetter practice prev-iils: the 
horse is turned out at bed-time ; the consequence is, he eats 
all night, and sleeps in the sunshine of the next day.' 



POULTRY. In order to have fine fowls, it is necessary 
to choose a good breed, and have a proper care taken of 



304 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

them. The Canton breed is thought highly of: and it is 
certainly desirable to have a fine large kind, but people differ 
in thei'' opinion which is best. It is as important to cross 
the breeds of fowls as of other animals ; hence it is improper 
to save males and females from the same sittings of eggs, if 
they are to be kept for propagation. The black is very 
juicy; but do not answer so well for boiling, as their legs 
partake of their color.^ They should be fed as nearly as pos- 
sible at the same hour and place. Potatoes boiled, unskin- 
ned, in a little water, and then cut, and either wet with 
skimmed milk or not, form one of the best foods. Turkeys 
and fowls thrive amazingly on them. The milk must not be 
sour. 

The best age for setting a hen is from two to five years ; 
and you should remark which hens make the best brooders, 
and keep those to laying who are giddy and careless of their 
young. In justice to the animal creation, however, it must 
be observed, there are but few instances of bad parents for 
the time their nursing is necessary. 

Hens sit twenty days. Convenient places should be pro- 
vided for their laying, as these will be proper for sitting like- 
wise. If the hen-house is not secured from vermin, the eggs 
will be sucked and the fowls destroyed. 

Those hens are usually preferred which have tufts of 
feathers on their heads ; those that crow are not looked upon 
as profitable. Some fine young fowls should be reared every 
year, to keep up a stock of good breeders; and by this at- 
tention, and removing bad layers and careless nurses, you 
will have a chance of a good stock. 

Let the hens lay some time before you set them, which 
should be done from the end of February to the beginning 
of May. While hens are laying, feed them well, and some- 
times with oats. 

Broods of chickens are hatched all through the summer, 
but those that come out very late require much care till they 
have gained some strength. 

If the eggs of any sort are put under a hen with some of 
her own, observe to add her own as many days after the 
others as there is difference in the length of their sitting. 
A turkey and duck sit thirty days. Choose large clear eggs 
to put her upon, and such a number as she can properly 
cover. If very large eggs, there are sometimes two yolks, 
and of course neither will be productive. Ten or twelve are 
quite enough. 



II 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 305 

A hen-house should be large and high ; and should be 
frequently cleaned out, or the vermin of fowls will increase 
greatly. But hens must not be disturbed while sitting; for 
if frightened, they sometimes forsake their nests. Worm- 
wood and rue should be planted plentifully about their 
houses ; boil some of the former, and sprinkle it about the 
floor, which should be of smooth earth not paved. The 
windows of the house should be open to the rising sun, and 
a hole must be left at the door, to let the smaller fowls go 
in ; the larger may be let in and out by opening the door. 
There should be a small sliding board to shut down when 
the fowls are gone to roost, which would prevent the small 
beasts of prey from committing ravages ; and a good strong 
door and lock may possibly, in some measure, prevent the 
depredations of human enemies. 

When some of the chickens are hatched long before the 
others, it may be necessary to keep them in a basket of wool 
till the others come forth. The day after they are hatched, 
give them some crumbs of white bread, and small (or rather 
cracked) grits soaked in milk. As soon as they have gained 
a little strength feed them with curd, cheese parings cut 
small, boiled corn, or any soft food, but nothing sour ; and 
give them clean water twice a day. Keep the hen under a 
pen till the young have strength to follow her about, which 
will be in two or three weeks, and be sure to feed her well. 

The food of fowls goes first into their crop, which softens 
it ; and then passes into the gizzard, which by constant fric- 
tion macerates it : and this is facilitated by small stones, 
which are generally found there, and which help to digest the 
food. 

The pip in fowls is occasioned by drinking dirty water, or 
taking filthy food. A white thin scale on the tongue is the 
symptom. Pull the scale off with your nail, and rub the 
tongue with some salt ; and the complaint will te removed. 

It answers well to pay some boy employed in the farm or 
stable so much a hundred for the eggs he brings in. It will 
be his interest then to save them from being purloined, which 
nobody but one in his situation can prevent ; and six or 
eight cents a hundred will be buying eggs cheap. 

To fatten Foivls or Chickens iri four or five Days. Set 
rice over the fire with skimmed milk, only as much as will 
serve one day. Let it boil till the rice is quite swelled out : 
you may add a tea-spoonful or two of sugar, but it will do 
well without. Feed them three times a day, in common 
26* 



306 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

pans, giving them only as much as will quite fill them at once. 
When you put fresh, let the pans be set in water, that no 
souTness may be conveyed to the fowls, as that prevents 
them from fattening. Give them clean water, or the milk 
of rice, to drink ; but the less wet the latter is when per- 
fectly soaked the better. By this method the flesh will have 
a clear whiteness which no other food gives ; and when it 
is considered how far a pound of rice will go, and how much 
time is saved by this mode, it will be found to be cheap. 
The pen should be daily cleaned, and no food given for six- 
teen hours before poultry be killed. A proportion o( animal 
mixed with vegetable food is said to cause poultry to thrive 
rapidly, but they should be confined to a vegetable diet for a 
fortnight or three weeks before they are killed for eating. 
A quantity of charcoal broken in small pieces and placed 
within the reach of poultry is said to increase their appetite, 
promote their digestion, and expedite their fattening. 

To choose Eggs at Market and preserve them. Put the 
large end of the e^g to your tongue ; if it feels warm it is 
new. In new-laid eggs there is a small division of the skin 
from the shell, which is filled with air, and is perceptible to 
the eye at the end. On looking through them against the 
sun or a candle, if fresh, eggs will be pretty clear. If they 
shake they are not fresh. 

Eggs may be bought cheapest when the hens first begin 
to lay in the spring, before they sit ; in fall and winter they 
become dear. They may be preserved fresh by dipping 
them in boiling water and instantly taking them out, or by 
oiling the shell ; either of which way is to prevent the air 
passing through it : or kept on shelves with small holes to 
receive one in each, and be turned every other day ; or close 
packed in the keg, and covered with strong lime-water."^ 



BIRDS. The following remarks on shooting birds, &c., 
are from a communication, published in the New England 
Farmer, vol. ix. p. 338, by a writer with the signature 
* Cultivator.^ 



* For Treatises on Poultry and their different varieties, see Fessenden's 
Mowbray, published by Lilly and Wait, and New England Farmer, vol. 
jx. p. 254, 278, 293, 318, 341. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 307 

It is a well known fact that the alarming increase of worms 
and insects in making ravages upon our fruit-trees and fruit, 
not only paralyzes the efforts and disheartens the hopes of 
the cultivator, but threatens total destruction to many of the 
most delicious kinds. So extensive are their ravages that 
but very few of our apricots and plums ever ripen without 
premature decay from the worm generated by the beetles 
which surround our trees in the twilight of the evening in 
great numbers when the fruit is quite young. And when 
the produce of our apple, pear, or peach trees is small, but 
few of these escape the same fate. 

I attribute the rapid and alarming increase of these worms 
and insects wholly to the diminution of those birds which 
fall a prey to our sportsmen, which are known to feed upon 
them, and for whose subsistence these insects were apparent- 
ly created. 

In addition to the important usefulness of these birds, their 
musical notes in the twilight of the morning are peculiarly 
delightful ; awaking the cultivator to the sublime contem- 
plation and enjoyment of all the infinite beauties of creation. 

In vain will be all our toil and labor, in vain the united 
efforts of horticultural societies for increasing and perfecting 
the cultivation of the most delicious varieties of fruits, unless 
we can increase, or at least cease to diminish these useful and 
melodious birds. 

If we have a statute in this commonwealth providing for 
the protection of these birds, let us unite our efforts to arrest 
this wanton destruction of them hy enforcing the penalties of 
the law in every instance of its violation. Our Horticultural 
society can scarcely do a greater service in promoting the 
objects of its organization, than by making a spontaneous 
and vigorous effort to this effect. 

If there be no statute for the protection of these invalua- 
ble creatures, I would earnestly, yet respectfully, suggest to 
the Horticultural society the propriety and even necessity of 
their petitioning our legislature at their next session for 
such an act. 

It is a common practice with these sportsmen through the 
summer to range the groves and orchards in this vicinity, 
almost every pleasant day, and more numerously on holidays, 
and to shoot every bird that comes within their reach. 

It is not however a small nor an easy task for one indi- 
vidual to get their names, residence, and the evidence neces- 
sary for their conviction ; but it requires the united eflforts 



308 THE COMPLETE FARMER i 

of all who are immediately interested. Already have these 
sportsmen commenced their wanton destruction of these use-« 
ful creatures, even before they had time to build a nest for 
rearing of their young. Birds that have survived the 
dreary winter in a more genial clime, having now returned 
to bless our efforts by their industry and to cheer our days 
with their melody, are scarcely permitted to commence their 
vernal song, ere they must fall victims to a wanton idleness 
that is as destitute of moral feeling as of useful employ- 
ment. 

The following was originally published in the Boston Pa- 
triot. 

' On Birds and their Misfortunes. We have already inti- 
mated our opinion, that the labors of the scientific ornitho- 
logists are of far more practical utility than the casual ob- 
server might suppose ; and that, even in the business of 
legislation, a regard to his researches might prevent many 
errors, which may much affect public welfare. The legisla- 
tion on the subject of birds has been marked by some essen- 
tial errors, which have led to real evil. By the law of 1817, 
woodcocks, snipes, larks, and robins, were protected at cer- 
tain seasons of the year, whilst war to the knife was de- 
clared against crows, blackbirds, owls, blue-jays, and hawks ; 
these last were treated as a sort of pirates, subject to sus- 
pension at the yard-arm with the least possible ceremony. 
It so happens, that the character of these very birds has been 
singularly mistaken ; for while the ordnance of legislation 
has been thus systematically levelled at them, they, on a 
principle which man would do extremely well to imitate, 
have been returning good for evil : they have been diligently 
engaged in extirpating all sorts of vermin, while never were 
the vilest vermin half so ill-treated by the human race. The 
crow, for example, who is generally regarded as a most suspi- 
cious character, has had great injustice done him. In the 
spring, when the ground is moist, he lives in a state of the 
most triumphant luxury on grubs ; he eats the young corn, 
it is true, but it is a necessary of life to which he never 
resorts except when his supply of animal food is shortened. 
After the corn is tolerably grown, he has nothing more to do 
with it ; and in any stage he destroys at least five hundred 
pernicious grubs and insects for every blade of corn which 
he pillages from man. In the southern states, he is regu- 
larly permitted to accompany the ploughman, and collects 
the grubs from the newly -opened furrow; his life is thus 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 309 

secured by the safest of all tenures, that of the interest of 
man in permitting him to live. 

' There is scarcely a farm in England without its rookery; 
the humid atmosphere multiplies every species of insect, and 
those birds reward man for his forbearance by ridding him 
of legions of his foes. By a policy like that which dictated 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes, they have occasionally 
been exposed to the mischievous propensities of unruly boys, 
who, as far as utility is concerned, are not to be compared 
to crows : but the error of this step soon became obvious, 
and they are now received with a universal welcome. The 
hawk enjoys a doubtful reputation in the hen-roost : he 
sometimes destroys the chickens but with the consistency 
of man does not like to see his infirmities copied by an- 
other ; and by way of compensation demolishes the fox, 
which eats twenty chickens where he eats but one ; so that 
it is hardly the part of wisdom to set a price upon his head, 
while the fox, a hardened knave, is not honored with a penal 
statute. How the owl became to be included in this black 
list, it is difficult to conjecture ; he is a grave, reflecting 
bird, who has nothing to do with man, except to benefit him 
by eating weasels, foxes, racoons, rats, and mice, a sin for 
which most housekeepers will readily forgive him. In some 
parts of Europe he is kept in families, like the cat, whom 
he equals in patience and supasses in alertness. Another 
of these birds, the blackbird, is the avowed enemy of grubs, 
like the crow; in the middle states, the farmer knows the 
value of his company to pluck them from the furrow ; and 
while other less pains-taking birds collect the vermin from 
the surface, his investigations are more profound, and he 
digs to the depth of several inches in order to discover them. 
When the insects are no longer to.be found, he eats the corn, 
as well he may, but even then asks but a moderate compen- 
sation for his former services. Five hundred blackbirds do 
less injury to the corn than a single squirrel. The last upon 
the catalogue of persecuted birds is the blue-jay. Whoever 
watches him in the garden will see him descend incessantly 
from the branches, pouncing every time upon the grub, his 
enemy and ours. 

' We have already seen that the act to which we have 
referred protects some birds at certain seasons of the year ; 
among others, the robin, who lives on insects and worms, 
and has no taste for vegetable diet, and the lark, who is ex- 
tremely useful in his way. The only wonder is, that it 



310 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

should have been thought expedient to allow them to he shot 
in any season. The quail, another of the privileged class, 
has no title to be named in ccmpany with the others ; in the 
planting time, he makes more havoc than a regiment of 
crows, without atoning for his misdeeds by demolishing a 
single grub. Nor is the partridge a much more scrupulous 
respecter of the rights of property ; though, as he lives in 
comparative retirement, he succeeds in preserving a better 
name for honesty. 

' There are some of our most familiar birds, of which a 
word may here be said. Every body has seen the little 
goldfinch on the thistle by the way-side, and wondered, per- 
haps, that his taste should lead him to so thorny a luxury ; 
but he is all this while engaged in devouring the seeds, 
which but for him would overrun the grounds of every far- 
mer. Even the bob-o'-link, a most conceited coxcomb, who 
steals with all imaginable grace, destroys millions of the 
insects which annoy the farmer most. All the little birds, 
in fact, which are seen about the blossoms of the trees, are 
doing us the same service in their own way. 

' Perhaps there is no bird which is considered more decid- 
edly wanting in principle than the woodpecker ; and, cer- 
tainly, so far as man is concerned, there is none more con- 
scientious. So long as a dead tree can be found for her nest, 
he will not trouble himself to bore into a living one ; what- 
ever wounds he makes upon the living are considered by 
foreign gardeners as an advantage to the tree. The sound 
tree is not the object ; he is in pursuit of insects and their 
larvae. In South Carolina and Georgia, forests to a vast ex- 
tent have been destroyed by an insect, which would seem as 
capable of lifting a tree as of destroying it. The people 
were alarmed by the visitation, and sagaciously laid the 
mischief at the door of the woodpecker, until they found 
that they had confounded the bailiiTwith the thief. 

' The injury arising from the loss of a single crop is hardly 
to be estimated. The experience which is taught us by our 
OAvn misfortune is very dearly bought ; and we think that if 
we can derive it from others, — if, for example, we can learn 
from the ornithologists the means of preventing such injury, 
as in many instances we may, — the dictates of economy com- 
bine with those of taste, and warn us not to neglect the 
result of his researches.' 

It was remarked by colonel Powel, that ' instead of being 
regaled by the whistling robin and chirping bluebird, busily 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 311 

employed in guarding us from that which no human fore- 
sight or labor is enabled to avert, our ears are assailed, our 
persons are endangered, our fences are broken, our crops are 
trodden down, our cattle are lacerated, and our flocks are 
disturbed bj'^ the idle shooter, regardless alike of the expen- 
sive attempts of the experimental farmer, or of the stores of 
the laboring husbandman ; whilst all the energies of his 
frame and the aim of his skill are directed towards the mur- 
der of a few little birds, worthless when obtained. The in- 
juries which arc immediately committed by himself and his 
dogs are small compared with the multiplied effects of the 
myriads of insects which would be destroyed by the animals 
whereof they are the natural prey.' 



BUSHES. Ir many parts of our country, the pasture 
grounds are infested, and often overrun with noxious shrubs ; 
this is the n.v; t slovenly part of our husbandry, and ought 
to be cured. 

Eradicating them, says Deane, requires so much labor, 
that fartners are most commonly content with cutting them 
once in a few years. But the more cuttings they survive, 
the long'^i lired they are apt to be, and the harder to kill, 
as the roots continually gain strength. 

It is undoubtedly true, that cutting bushes in the summer 
will do more towards destroying them than doing it in any 
other season, .particularly in x\ugust. Other circumstances 
being equal, the wettest weather is best for destroying shrubs 
by cutting. Spreading plaster on ground where bushes have 
been cut may tend tv check their re-sprouting, by encourag- 
ing the growth of grass. 

It is said to be a good method of destroying bushes, to cut 
them with hoes close to the surface, when the ground is 
frozen hard ; and that more may be destroyed in a day in 
this way than in the usual method of cutting with a bush- 
scythe. 

Bushes which g^ow in clusters, as alder, &c., may be ex- 
peditiously pulled up by oxen ; and this is an effectual way 
to subdue them. 

Elder is considered harder to subdue than almost any 
other kind of bush ; mowing them five times in a season, it is 
said, will not kill them. The roots of the shrub-oak will 
not be killed but by digging them out. 



312 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

To destroy bushes in swamps, flooding two or three sum- 
mers is the most approved method. But if this is not con- 
venient, draining v/ill so alter the nature of the soil, that the 
shrubs which it naturally produced before will not be any 
longer nourished by it ; and one cutting may be sufficient. 

After all, extirpation, by digging them out, and by fire, is 
cheap :st and most effectual. — Farmer''s Guide, 



IRRIGATION. The following is from the Transactions 
of the Essex Agricultural Society. 

Dr. Spofford's Essay on Irrigation. I feel some apology 
is due to the trustees for my long delay in fulfilling the ap- 
poi-ntment with which I was honored by them at their meet- 
ing in September, 1830 ; and have only to say that it was 
occasioned by a desire to obtain from a friend, then at a dis- 
tance, some account of an experiment on a larger scale than 
any other which has come to my knowledge in this part of 
the countrj^. 

Some degree of knowledge of what constitutes the food of 
plants seems indispensable to any well-conducted system of 
producing them in the greatest perfection; and such know- 
ledge seems most likely to be obtained by minutely examin- 
ing their structure, and carefully observing the manner of 
their orrowth. 

Plants constitute one of the great divisions of organic life, 
and one formed or constituted by systems of fibres and ves- 
sels, and endowed with certain powers and appetences which 
place them at a greater remove above unorganized matter 
than they are below animal life ; and appropriate nourish- 
ment is elaborated, and a complete circulation is carried on 
to the minutest extremity, in a manner extremely analogous 
to the circulation which is carried on in the arteries and veins 
of the most perfect animals ; and the apparent intelligence 
with which plants seek for nourishment, light, air, and sup- 
port, appears in some instances to bear a strong resemblance 
to perception and knowledge ; and the circulation of fluids 
in the vessels of plants and animals appears to be carried on 
much on the same principles, and is perfectly involuntary in 
both. 

The indispensrable agency of water, in constituting the 
fluids, and carrying on the circulation in these systems of 
vessels, has been universally acknowledged ; and could not 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 313 

be overlooked by the most careless observer, while he saw 
innumerable instances in which plants wither and dry for 
want of this substance. But while this universal agency has 
been acknowledged, it is believed that a very inferior office 
has been assigned to it from that which it really performs. 
It has been consid'^red as the mere vehicle which carried and 
deposited the nutritious particles of other substances, while 
it in reality was contributing much the largest portion of 
the actual nourishment to the plants which annually clothe 
our earth in living green. 

If this idea is correct, then he who possesses water at his 
command with which to sjpply his plants at pleasure, or 
who has a soil adapted to attract and retain moisture in 
suitable quantities, possesses a mine of inexhaustible wealth, 
from which he can draw at pleasure, in proportion to his 
industry and his wants. 

In proof of the abstract principle that water constitutes in 
a very laige proportion the food of plants, I may be allowed 
to mention one or two accurate experiments of distinguished 
philosophers upon the subject, which appear to nie to be 
quite decisive on the case. 

' Mr. Boyle d/ied in an oven a quantity of earth proper 
for vegetation, and after carefully weighing it, planted in it 
the seed of a gourd; he watered it with pure rain water, and 
it produced a plant which weighed fourteen pounds, though 
the earth producing it had suffered no sensible diminution.' 

' A willow tree was planted by Van Helmont in a pot, 
containing a thousand pounds of earth. This plant was 
watered with distilled water or pure rain water ; and the 
vessel so covered as to exclude all solid matter. At the end 
of five years, upon taking out the plant, he found it had in- 
creased in weight one hundred and nineteen pounds, though 
the earth had lost only two ounces of its original weight.' 

The experiments of Mr. Cavendish and Dr. Priestley have 
sufficiently proved that vegetables have the power of decom- 
posing water and converting it into such fluids as they need 
for circulation in their own vessels ; and that they elaborate 
from this substance such juices and fruits as they are by 
nature calculated to produce. 

The great effect which is so frequently observed to follow 
the formation of ditches from the road-sides on to mowing- 
ground, is, no doubt, in part, to be attributed to the manure 
which is thereby washed on to the ground, but is also in part 
27 



314 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

owing to the more copious supply of water which it thereby 
receives. 

That pure water is capable of producing sinnilar effects I 
have the following experiments to prove : 

Several years ago, when resident with my father on his 
farm at Rowley, I labored hard to divert a stream, which fell 
into a miry swamp, from its usual course across a piece of 
dry upland. The stream was pure spring water, which issued 
between the hills about fifty rods above, running but just far 
enough to acquire the temperature of the atmosphere, but 
without receiving any more fertilizing quality than was ob- 
tained in passing through a pasture in a rocky channel ; the 
effect, however, was to double the quantity of grass. The 
same stream I again diverted from its course about forty rods 
below, after it had filtered through a piece of swamp or 
meadow-ground, and with the same effect ; and again, still 
lower down its course, I succeeded in turning it on to a piece 
of high peat-meadow, which had usually produced but very 
little of any thing ; and the effect was, that more than double 
of the quantity of grass was produced, and that of a much 
better quality. I was led to this latter experiment by ob- 
serving that a strip of meadow which naturally received the 
water of this run, and over which it spread for several rods 
in width without any particular channel, was annually much 
more productive than any other part of the meadow. 

But the best experiment, and on the largest scale of any 
which I have known, was made by my late father-in-law, 
deacon Eleazar Spofford, then resident at Jaffrey, New 
Hampshire. A letter from Rev. Luke A. Spofford, in an- 
swer to my inquiry on this subject, observes : ' My father 
commenced the experiment as early as the year 1800, and 
continued it till 1820, or to the time when he sold his farm. 
The last ten years of his time he flashed perhaps twenty 
acres ; and it produced, I should think, twice as much in 
common seasons, and three times as much in dry seasons, as 
it would have done without watering. This land would 
hold out to yield a good crop twice as long as other land of 
the same quality,' (that is, I presume, without flowing.) 
' In dry weather he watered it every night, and the produce 
was good, very good.^ 

I am acquainted with the lot of land which was the sub 
ject of this experiment. It is a northern declivity, and rather 
a light and sandy soil, on the eastern bank of Contoocook 
river ; and the water used was that of the river, about one 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 315 

mile below its formation by the junction of two streams, one 
from a large pond of several hundred acres in Rindoe, and 
the other a mountain stream, formed by innumerable springs 
issuing from the skirts of the Monadnock. 

From the foregoing premises may we not conclude, that 
water performs a more important office in the growth and 
formation of plants than has generally been supposed, and 
that it not only serves to convey nourishment, but that it is 
itself elaborated into nourishment, and thereby constitutes 
the solid substance ? and we may farther conclude, that every 
farmer should survey his premises, and turn those streams 
■which now are often useless or hurtful on to lands where 
they are capable of diffusing fertility, abundance, and wealth. 

It appears, farther, that the immense fertility of Egypt is 
not so much owing to the alluvial deposit brought down by 
the annual inundation, as to the canals and reservoirs in 
which the waters are retained, to be spread over the lands 
during the succeeding drought, at the will of the cultivator. 

If, according to the experiments of Boyle and Van Hel- 
mont, almost the whole food of plants is derived from water, 
then the principal use of the various manures is to attract 
moisture and stimulate the roots of plants to absorb and 
< ' .borate it ; and we have also reason to think that lands are 
iDuch more injured and impoverished by naked exposure to 
heat and wind, and washing by water that runs oft' and is 
lost, than it is by producing abundant crops. 

In the present state of population, nothing more could be 
expected or desired, than that every farmer should make use 
of such means as the small streams in his vicinity may 
afford ; but in a densely peopled country, like Egypt in 
former ages, or China at present, it should doubtless be one 
of the first enterprises of a good government to take our 
large rivers above their falls and turn them off into canals 
for the benefit of agriculture. 

Jeremiah Spofford. 



WOOD-LAND, ground covered with wood or trees. 
They are mostly designed for fuel and timber. In felling 
them care should be taken to injure the young growth as 
little as possible. Firewood, as well as timber, should be 
felled when the sap is down ; otherwise it will hiss and fry 
upon the fire, and not burn freely, although it should be ever 



316 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

SO long dried. To thicken a forest, or to increase the num- 
ber of trees in a wood lot, it should be well fenced, and no 
cattle be permitted to be in it. And something may be done, 
if needful, by layers and cuttings. — Deane. 

The practice of the populous nations of Europe, whose 
forests have been cut off centuries ago, and who are com- 
pelled to resort to measures of the strictest economy to sup- 
ply themselves with fuel, ought to have great weight with 
us. France, in an especial manner, ought to be looked up 
to for wise lessons on this subject. Her vast and thickly 
settled population, her numerous manufactures, her poverty 
in mineral coal, the eminence which she has attained in all 
economical arts, entitle her to great respect. It is the prac- 
tice of the French people not to cut off their woods oftener 
than once in twenty or twenty-five years, and by law, when 
they are cut over, the owner is obliged to cut the ivhole 
smooth, with the exception of a very few trees, which the 
officers of the government had marked to be spared for 
larger growth. Without giving any opinion as to the pro- 
priety of the direct interference of the government on such a 
topic, we should say that the example proves that in the 
opinion of the French scientific and practical men, it is ex- 
pedient when wood-lands are cut that they should be cut 
smooth, in order that the new growth might start togethor, 
not overshaded by other trees of larger growth. We have 
no favorable opinion of the utility of cutting down trees in a 
scattered manner, as they appear to fail, and still less of 
planting acorns in thinner spots of the forest. The growth 
thus produced must remain forever feeble. — Loivell. 

A valuable paper by the Hon. John Welles, republished 
in the New England Farmer, vol. i. page 329, from the 
Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, recommends cutting 
hard \\ ood trees between forty and fifty years of age ; and 
the writer states that ' though trees may shoot up in height 
by standing longer, yet the period of the most rapid vegeta- 
tion is mostly over, and by this means much of the under- 
growth is necessarily destroyed.' Mr. Welles is of opinion 
that in cutting over a wood lot to obtain fuel, it is best to 
take the whole growth as you proceed. He observes that 
' we have been condemned as evincing a want of taste in 
cutting off our forests without leaving what it would take 
half a century to produce, — a shade near where it is nroposed 
to erect buildings. The fact is that trees of original groAvth 
have their roots mostly in the upper stratum of earth, and 



AND RURAL ECONOMTST. 317 

near the surface. A tree acts upon its roots and is acted 
upon by the wind, sustaining in common with the whole 
forest the force of this element, and it becomes accommo- 
dated or naturalized to its pressure. But when left alone or 
unsustained, it is borne down by the first gale, often to the 
injury of property and even of life.' The Farmer's Assis- 
tant likewise says, ' if woods are old and decaying the better 
way is to cut all off, as you want to use the wood, and 
let an entire new growth start up, which will grow more 
rapidly.' 



INSECTS. It would far transcend our limits to give 
even a brief description of the various sorts of insects which 
injure gardens, cultivated fields, &;c., and destroy the best 
productions of our soil. We shall, therefore, confine our- 
selves to stating, briefly, some of the most approved modes 
of counteracting the ravages and effecting the destruction 
of a few of those which are most injurious to the cultivator. 

The preventive operations are those of the best culture, 
in the most extensive sense of the term, including what re- 
lates to choice of seed or plant, soil, situation, and climate. 
If these are carefully attended to, it will seldom happen that 
any species of insect will effect serious and permanent inju- 
ry. Vegetables which are vigorous and thrifty are not apt 
to be injured by worms, flies, bugs, &c. Fall ploughing, by 
exposing worms, grubs, the larvce of bugs, beetles, &c. to 
the intense frosts of our winters, is very beneficial. Insects 
may be annoyed, and oftentimes their complete destruction 
effected, by sprinkling over them, by means of a syringe, 
watering-pot, or garden engine, simple water, soap-suds, to- 
bacco-water, decoctions of elder, especially of the dwarf 
kind, of walnut leaves, bitter and acrid herbs, pepper, lye 
of wood ashes, or solutions of pot and pearl-ashes, water 
impregnated with salt, tar, turpentine, &;c. ; or they may 
be dusted with sulphur, quicklime, and other acrid sub- 
stances. Loudon says, ' Saline substances, mixed with wa- 
ter, are injurious to most insects with tender skins, as the 
worm and slug; and hot water, where it can be applied 
without injuring vegetation, is equally, if not more power- 
fully, injurious. Water heated to one hundred and twenty 
or one hundred and thirty degrees will not injure plants 
whose leaves are expanded, and in some degree hardened; 
and water at two hundred degrees or upwards may be 
27=^ 



318 ' THE COMPLETE FARMER 

poured over leafless plants. The effects of insects may also 
be palliated on one species of plant by presenting to them 
another which they prefer : thus wasps are said to prefer 
carrots, the berries of the yew, and the honey of the hoya, 
to grapes; honey, or sugared water, to ripe fruit, and so on. 
One insect or animal may also be set to eat another, as ducks 
for slugs and worms, turkeys for the same purpose, and cater- 
pillars and ants for aphides, and so on.' 

The Rev. Mr. Falconer, one of the correspondents of the 
Bath Agricultural society, strongly recommends soap-suds, 
both as a manure and antidote against insects. He observes, 
that ' this mixture of an oil and an alkali has been more 
generally known than adopted as a remedy against the in- 
sects which infest wall fruit-trees. It will dislodo-e and de- 
stroy the msects which have already formed their nests and 
bred among the leaves. When used in the early part of the 
year, it seems to prevent the insects from settling upon them.' 
He prefers soap-suds to lime-water, because lime soon ' loses 
its causticity, and with that its efficacy, by exposure to air, 
and must, consequently, be frequently applied; and to the 
dredging of the leaves with the fine dust of wood ashes and 
lime, because the same effect is produced by the mixture, 
without the same labor, and is obtained without any ex- 
pense.' He directs to make use of a common garden-pump 
for sprinkling trees with soap-suds, and says, if the water of 
a washing cannot be had, a quantity of potash dissolved in. 
water may be substituted ; and that the washing of the 
trees with soap-suds twice a week, for three or four weeks 
in the spring, will be sufficient to secure them from aphides, 
&c. 

Other modes of counteracting the effects of insects are 
pointed out in treating of the plants which are most liable 
to be injured by them. We shall, however, make some re- 
marks on a few of those which are most common and injuri- 
ous to the interests of the cultivator. 

Canker -imrm. We shall not attempt to give either a de- 
scription or the natural history of the canker-worm, but re- 
fer to professor Peck's Memoir on the subject, (which was 
originally published in the Massachusetts Agricultural Re- 
pository, and republished in the New England Farmer, vol. 
V. p. 393,) and direct our attention exclusively to the reme- 
dies which have been used or suggested to preserve fruit- 
trees from this formidable enemy. 

The female of this insect comes out of the ground late in 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 319 

the fall, early in the spring, or, sometimes, during a period 
of mild, open weather in winter. Those which rise in 
autumn or in winter are less numerous than those which as- 
cend in spring; but, being v?ry prolific, they do much inju- 
ry. One method of preventing the ravages of the worm is 
to bar the ascent of the females up the stem of the tree. 
This has generally been attempted by tarring, of which 
there are several modifications : 

1. A strip of linen or canvas is put round the body of 
the tree, before the females begin their ascent, and well 
smeared with tar. The insects, in attempting to pass this 
barrier, stick fast and perish. But this process, to complete 
the desired effect, must be commenced about the first of No- 
vember, and the tariing continued when the weather is mild 
enough to permit the worms to emerge from the ground, till 
the latter end of May, or till the time of their ascent is past. 
It is necessary to fill the crevices in the bark with clay mor- 
tar, before the strip of linen or canvas is put on, that the 
insects may not pass under it. Having put on the strip, 
which should be at least three inches wide, draw it close, 
fasten the ends together strongly, then tie a thumb-rope of 
tow round the tree, close to the lower edge of the strip. 
The design of this is to prevent ihe tar from running down 
the bark of the tree, which would injure it. It should be 
renewed in moderate weather, once a day, without fail. The 
best time is soon after sunset, because the insects are wont 
to pass up in the evening, and the tar will not harden so much 
in the night as the day. 

2. Another mode of tarring is to take two pretty wide 
pieces of board, plane them, make semicircular notches in 
each, fitting them to the stem or body of the tree, and 
fasten them together securely at the ends, so that the most 
violent storms may not displace them. The crevices betwixt 
the boards and the tree may be easily stopped with rags or 
tow ; then smear the under sides of the boards with tar. 
The tar, being defended from the direct rays of the sun, will 
hold its tenacity the longer, and, therefore, need not be fre- 
quently renewed. The trees in this way will be less liable 
to be injured by the drippings of tar by leaving a margin of 
two or three inches on those parts of the boards which are 
next to the trees, to which no tar is applied. 

3. A gentleman informs us, that in Plymouth, Massachu- 
setts, they make use of the following mixture as a substitute 
for tar in preserving fruit-trees against canker-worms, viz. : 



320 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

White varnish, soft soap, and whale oil, one-third of each to 
be mixed and applied as tar is usually. This mixture is not 
soon hardened by the weather, and does not injure the trees. 
Another simple mode of preventing the ascent of the insects \ 
is to wind a band of refuse flax or swingle-tow round the I 
tree, and stick on the band burdock or chestnut burs set so^ 
closely together that worms cannot jiass between them. || 

The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, vol. iii. No. 
4, contains some remarks on the canker-worm, by the Hon. 
John Lowell, president of the Massachusetts Agricultural 
society, from which the following is extracted : 

' I had the turf dug in around sixty apple-trees, and the 
earth laid smooth. I then took three hogsheads of effete, or 
air-slacked lime, and strewed it an inch thick round my 
trees, to the extent of two or three feet from the roots, so 
that the whole diameter of the opening was from four to 
six feet. 

' I tarred these trees as well as the others, and although I 
had worms or grubs on most that were not limed, I did not 
catch a single grub where the trees were limed. 

' I do not speak with confidence. I am, however, strongly 
encouraged to believe the remedy perfect. It was ascertained 
by professor Peck, that the insect seldom descended into the 
ground at a greater distance than three or four feet from the 
trunk, and to the depth of four inches, or that the greater 
part come within that distance. The lime is known to be 
destructive of all animal substances, and I have little doubt 
that it actually decomposes and destroys the insect in the 
chrysalis state ; at least I hope that this is the case. 

' There are many reasons which should encourage a repe- 
tition of this experiment. The digging round the trees is 
highly useful to them, while tarring is very injurious. The 
expense is not great. A man can dig round fifty trees in one 
day. The lime is a most salutary manure to the tree. 
After the spot has been once opened and limed, the labor 
of keeping it open will not be great. Three hogsheads of 
air-slacked lime, or the sweepings of a lime-store, will suf- 
fice for fifty trees, and will cost three dollars. As it is done 
but once a year, I think it cannot be half so expensive as 
tarring. 

' I repeat it, that I mention my experiments with great 
diflidence, as being the first of my own knowledge. It may 
induce several persons to try it in difl^erent places, and where 
trees are surrounded with others which are treated differently. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 321 

All I pray is, that it may prove successful and relieve us 
from this dreadful scourge, which defaces our country, while 
it impoverishes and disappoints the farmer.' 

The remedies proposed by professor Peck were, 1st. Turn- 
ing up the ground carcfi !]y in October, as far as the branches 
of a tree extend, to half a spade's depth, or five inches, so 
as completely to inv^ert the surface. A great number of 
chrysalids would thus be exposed to the air and sun, and of 
course destroyed. 2dly. Breaking the clods, and smoothing 
the surface with a rake, and passing a heavy roller over it, 
so as to make it very hard, and without cracks. In grass 
grounds the sods should be turned with the grass side down, 
and placed side hy side, so as to be rolled. The winter's 
frosts would heave and crack a smooth surface, but it might 
be smoothed and hardened by the roller, or by other means, 
in March, with much less trouble, time, and expense, than 
rolling requires. Ar lime, when slacked, is reduced to an im- 
palpable powder, and is thus well adapted to close the open- 
ings in the surface, Mr. Peck was inclined to think its good 
effects are produced this way as well as by its caustic quali- 
ties. — Thacher's Orchardist, p. 93. 

John Kenrick, Esq., of Newton, Massachusetts, proposed, 
between the time in June after the worms had disappeared 
and the 20th of October, to take the whole of the soil sur- 
rounding the trees, to the extent at least of four feet fcom 
the trunk, and to a suitable depth, and cart it away to a dis- 
tance from any trees which the canker-worms are in the 
habit of feeding on ; and returning an equal quantity of com- 
post or rich earth intermixed with manure. 

A writer for the Neio England Farmer, vol. iii. p. 327, 
states a case of an orchard having been preserved from 
canker-worms by means of a large number of locust-trees, 
equal t^ about double the number of apple-trees. 

Mr. Roland Howard, of Easton, Massachusetts, observes, 
{N. E. Farmer, vol. iv. p. 391,) that ' a quantity of lime 
was collected from the sweepings of a lime-store, and spread 
on the ground around a certain apple-tree, some time in the 
month of November; (the foliage of which tree haa been 
destroyed by the canker-worm the preceding summer ;) the 
ground being in a pulverized state, the lime was spread as 
far from the trunk of the tree as the drippings from the 
branches extended : the effect was stated to be the entire 
disappearance of the worm, and an increased vigor of the 
tree.' The same writer observes, that ' moving the earth 



322 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

with a plough or hoe late in November, or beginning of De- 
cember, has been found very efficacious in destroying them.' 
This last mentioned remedy, if it will always prove efficient, 
will probably be the cheapest and most expedient. But the 
worm must be capable of enduring a considerable degree of 
cold, or unerring^ instinct would not lead it from its dormito- 
ry in November (as it frequently does) to brave the rigors 
of winter on the stem or branches of the tree. We are in- 
clined to believe, as well as to hope, that the application of 
lime, as above stated, Avill prove effectual ; and if so, it will 
probably be preferable to any mode of applying tar, or at- 
tacking the enemy above ground. 

When the insects have ascended, their numbers may be 
lessened by jarring or shaking the body or limbs of the tree, 
causing them to suspend themselves by the threads which 
they spin from their bodies, and striking them off with a 
stick. It is said that those which thus fall to the earth do 
not rise again. Whether they would be able to resist the 
effects of a sprinkling with soap-suds, saline or bitter infu- 
sions, &c., is more than we can say; but Vve wish their 
powers n^ight be tested by showering them with those mix- 
tures which are found to be the best antidotes against other 
insects. 

Caterpillar. ' This is one of the worst enemies to an 
orchard when neglected ; but easily destroj'^ed by a little 
attention. In the spring, when the nests are small and the 
insects young and tender, they never venture abroad in the 
early part of the day, when the dew is on the trees, or in 
bad weather ; they may then be effectually destroyed by 
crushing them in the nest. This attention, continued a short 
time every spring, will destroy those in existence, and will 
prevent their increase in future years : if left till grown 
strong, they wander from their nests, and cannot be effectu- 
ally overcome without great trouble and expense.' — Coze on 
Fruit- Trees. 

The Hon. Timothy Pickering, in a letter to the corre- 
sponding secretary of the Massachusetts Agricultural socie- 
ty, has recommended an implement for the destruction of 
caterpillars. It is made by inserting some hog's bristles 
between twisted wires, in such a manner as to form a cylin- 
drical brush, which will present bristles on every side. This 
is attached to a pole of such length as the trees may require, 
and the caterpillars are brought down by it, and then crush- 
ed. Other methods have been proposed, such as casting over 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 323 

the tree a few handfuls of ashes, in the morning before the 
dew is dissipated from the foliage, or after a shower of rain. 
A strong whitewash of fresh stone-lime, applied by the means 
of a mop, or sponge fixed to the end of a pole, strong soap- 
suds, spirits of turpentine, a little oil of any kind, particularly 
blubber oil, are likewise fatal to the insects. But, perhaps, 
the most effectual remedy is the hand, by which the insects 
may easily be removed at an early stage ; but if this be 
neglected, it is thought that the next best remedy is the use 
of colonel Pickering's brush as above. In applying either of 
these remedies, care must be taken to choose that part of the 
day when the caterpillars are in their nests. They rarely 
quit them till nine o'clock, and generally return to them 
again about twelve. 

Curculio. This is a small bug, or beetle, which perfo- 
rates the young fruit of the pear, apple, and all stone fruits, 
and deposits its eggs in them. The eggs soon hatch, and a 
small maggot is produced, which feeds either on the pulp of 
the fruit, or on the kernel of the seed; for the tastes and 
habits of the different species are not similar. In the stone 
fruits, this injury destroys their growth, and they fall with 
the little enemy within, them. The insect retreats into the 
earth, and passes the winter in the chrysalis state, and comes 
forth just as the young fruit is forming, or the petals of the 
flowers are falling, to renew its mischievous labors. This 
insect contiaaes i^s depredations from the first of May until 
autumn. Dr. James Tilion, of Wilmington, Delaware, in 
an article on this subject, published in the American editions 
of Willich's Domestic Eiictjdopedia, observes that 'our fruits, 
collectively estimated, must thereby be depreciated more 
than half their value ;' and adds, in his directions for de- 
stroying the insect, ' all the domestic animals, if well direct- 
ed, contribute to this purpose. Hogs, in a special manner, 
are qualified for the work of extermination. In large or- 
chards, care should be taken that the stock of hogs is suffi- 
cient to eat up all the early fruit which falls from May till 
August. This precaution will be more especially necessary 
in large peach orchards ; for otherwise, when the hogs be- 
come cloyed with the pulp of the peach, they will let it fall 
out of their mouths, and content themselves with the kernel, 
which they like better ; and thus the curculio, escaping from 
their jaws, may hide under ground till next spring.' 

' The ordinary fowls of a farm-yard are great devourers 
of beetles. Poultry in general are regarded as carnivorous 



324 THE COKPLETE FARBIER 

in the summer, and therefore cooped some time before they 
are eaten. Every body knovvs with what avidity ducks 
seize on tlie tumble-bug, [scarabcBus car7iifex,) and it is pro- 
bable the curculio i!= regarded by all fowls as an equally de- 
licious morsel. Therefore it is that the smooth stone fruits, 
particularly, succeed much better in lanes and yards, where 
poultry run without restraint, than in gardens and other in- 
closures, where fowls are excluded.' 

Instead of turning swine into orchards, to pick up the 
fruit which falls, and thus destroy the worms which it con- 
tains, it will often be found most expedient to gather such 
fruit, and give it to swine in pens, &c., either raw, or, what 
would be better, boiled. If such measures were generally 
taken with fruit which falls spontaneously, as to prevent the 
insects, which generally cause it to drop prematurely, from 
escaping into the ground, the worms, which destroy one- 
half our fruit, and very much deteriorate a considerable part 
of the other half, would soon be extirpated from our orchards 
and fruit-gardens. 

Aphis, Plant-louse, Piiceron, or Vine-fretter. ' This genus 
of insects comprises many species and varieties, which are 
so denominated from the plants they infest. The males are 
winged, and the females without wings ; they are viviparous, 
producing their young alive, in the spring ; and also ovipa- 
rous, laying eggs in autumn. Water, dashed with force 
from a syringe, [or garden engine,] will prove as destructive 
to them as any thing, when on trees; and smaller plants 
may be washed with lime-water, with tobacco-water, with 
elder leaves infused in water, or with common soap-suds, 
any of which will destroy the insects.' — Loudon. ' Tie up 
some flour of sulphur in a piece of muslin, or fine linen, and 
with this the leaves of young shoots or plants should be 
dusted, or it may be thrown on them by means of a common 
swan's-down puff, or even a dredging box. Sulphur has also 
been found to promote the health of plants, on which it was 
sprinkled, and that peach trees, in particular, were remarka- 
bly improved by it.' — Domestic Encyclopedia. 'In green- 
houses, they are readily destroyed by the smoke of tobacco, 
or of sulphur ; but in the open air, fumigation, though much 
in vogue many years since, is of no avail. The best remedy 
is the simplest. Soap-suds, forcibly applied, will, after one 
or two applications, effectually destroy them, without appa- 
rent injury to the plant.' — Deane. 

A writer for the New England Farmer, vol. iii, p. 9, after 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 325 

stating a number of experiments witli soap-suds, for destroy- 
ing- aphides, which were unsuccessful, or but partially suc- 
ceeded, says, ' I was led to conclude, that it is not sufficient 
to wet the upper side of the leaves, thinking to make them 
disagreeable or poisonous to the insect, but that they must 
be well drenched or immersed in the suds. I therefore ap- 
plied again the same remedy ; but with this difi'erence — 
instead of sprinkling the upper side of the branches, I carried 
a pailful of suds from tree to tree, and, bending the tops of 
small trees, and the branches of larger ones, immersed all 
the parts infested with lice, holding them in the liquor for a 
moment, that none might escape being well wet. On ex- 
amining the trees the next day, the greater part of the lice 
were destroyed. It was found necessary to repeat the same 
process once or twice, with suds not too weak, say about 
two or three ounces of soap to a gallon of water.' Another 
writer in the same paper, page 10, says, ' I hav'^e applied soap- 
suds to my apple-trees, in order to kill the lice. It will be 
sufficient for me to say, that just sprinkling them with suds 
will not kill them ; neither will dipping the branches which 
are infested with them kill them. But dipping and holding" 
them in as long as I can conveniently hold my breath, will 
destroy every one. The suds do not appear to injure the 
leaves. I tried suds made on purpose, and suds which had 
been used for family washing. The latter answers the pur- 
pose much the best.' It is possible to make soap-suds so 
strong as to kill the tender branches, as well as the insects 
which infest them. The proportion above mentioned, of two 
or three ounces of soap to a gallon of water, is probably 
most advisable.' 

Cut-worm. This is an ash-colored worm, with a stripe 
almost black on its back. When fully grown it is about the 
size of a goosequill, and about an inch and a quarter in 
length. They are very apt to cut off young cabbages, cauli- 
flowers, beets, &c. They never voluntarily appear on the 
surface of the ground in the day time, but may be found 
about an inch below it. In the night they make their ex- 
cursions, cut off the stems of young plants just at the top of 
the ground, and again bury themselves. 

Dr. Deane observed, ' I once prevented their depredations 
in my garden, by manuring the soil with sea-mud, newly 
taken from the flats. The plants generally escaped, though 
every one was cut off' in a spot of ground that lies contigu- 
ous. From the success of this experiment, I conclude that 
28 



326 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

salt is very offensive or pernicious to them. Lime and ashes, 
in some measure, prevent their doing mischief; but sea- 
water, salt, or brine, would be more effectual antidotes. 
The most effectual, and not a laborious remedy, even in field- 
culture, is to go round every morning, and open the earth 
at the foot of the plant, and you will never fail to find the 
worm at the root within four inches. Kill him, and you 
will save not only the other plants of your field, but, pro- 
bably, many thousands in future years.' 

There is some danger, in making use of salt, brine, or 
sea-water, of injuring the plants in attempting to destroy 
insects ; and we should, therefore, generally prefer decoc- 
tions of elder, walnut leaves, or tobacco. Mr. Preston, of 
Stockport, Pennsylvania, preserved his cabbage-plants from 
cut-worms by wrapping a hickory-leaf round the stem, be- 
tween the roots and leaves. — Neio England Farmer, vol. iii. 
p. 369. The Hon. Mr. Fiske, of Worcester, Massachusetts, 
in speaking of this insect, says, ' To search out the spoiler, 
and kill him, is the very best course ; but as his existence is 
not known except by his ravages, I make a fortress for my 
plants with paper, winding it conically and firmly above the 
root, and securing it by a low embankment of earth.' — New 
Engla?id Fariner, vol. iv. p. 362. 

Lice on Apple-trees. There is a species of insect infesting 
apple-trees which may be styled the bark louse, to distin- 
guish it from the plant louse, or aphis. It is, in form, like 
half a kernel of rye, but much smaller, with the flat side 
sticking to the bark of the tree. Jesse Buel, Esq., of Alba- 
ny, gives the following statement of his mode of destroying 
them : ' In June last, I observed directions in the New Eng- 
land Farmer for destroying the parasitic enemy ; and, that 
being the particular time to make the application, I imme- 
diately set about it. For this purpose, I took eight parts of 
water and two of soft soap, and mixed with these lime 
enough to make a thick Avhitewash. With a whitewash 
and paint brush I put this upon the trunks and limbs of 
trees, as high as was practicable, filling the cracks in the 
bark, and covering the whole surface. The effect has been 
not only to destroy most of the lice, but to give the trees an 
improved and vigorous appearance. The outer bark, which, 
from a stinted growth, had become rougli and hard, has, in a 
measure, fallen off in flakes, and disclosed a soft, smooth 
bark, the sure indication of health.' 

Apple-tree Borer. {Saperda bivitata.) The scientific de- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 327 

scription of this very pernicious insect is thus given by pro- 
fessor Say, of Philadelphia : ' Hoary ; above, light-brown, 
with two broad white fillets. Inhabits the United States. 
Body, white ; eyes, fuscous ; a small spot on the vertex, and 
another behind each eye, light-brown ; antennce^ moderate, 
slightly tinged with bluish ; thorax, light brown, with two 
broad, white lines, approaching before ; elytra, light-brown, 
irregularly punctured ; a broad, white, longitudinal line on 
each, nearer to the suture than to the outer edge. Length, 
from one-half to seven-tenths of an inch. A very pretty in- 
sect. In the larva? state, it is very injurious to the apple- 
tree, boring into the wood.' — Journal of the Academy of Sci- 
ences, Phil. vol. iii. p. 409. 

Professor Say, in a letter to Jesse Buel, Esq., says, ' You 
state that it leaves the pupa, and becomes perfect in the lat- 
ter part of April, and that the eggs are deposited beneath 
the surface of the soil. These two circumstances ascer- 
tained, I would recommend the application, early in May, oi 
the latter part of April, of common bricklayer's mortar, 
around the baso of the tree, so as to cover completely the 
part, and its immediate vicinity, where the deposit is made. 
This preventive was successfully employed by Mr. Shot- 
\.-;\\ against the attacks of the peach-tree insect, (see Ameri- 
can Farmer, vol. vi. p. 14,) and I see no reason why it should 
not be equally efficacious in the preservation of the apple- 
tree.' — Memoirs of the Neia York Board of Agriculture, vol. 
iii. p. 479. 

The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, vol. v. p. 360, 
contains a paper on this insect, by John Prince, Esq., by 
which it appears that worms of this kind are got rid of by 
' diga^ing round the tree, and clearing away the earth to the 
roots, and then with a sharp-pointed knife, a chisel, or a 
gouge, and a small wire to probe, if they are deep in the 
tree, they may easily be destroyed.' After taking out the 
worms the wounds should be covered over with grafting-clay 
and a large proportion of dry wood ashes mixed, and the 
earth then returned to the tree. The process for cleansing 
the trees from borers should be performed in the spring, as 
soon as the frost is out of the ground, or at least before the 
month of June, as the perfect insect escapes before that 
time. 

Slug-u'orm, or Naked Snail. These reptiles appear on 
the leaves of fruit-trees in the month of July. Professor 
Peck has ascertained that they are the progeny of a small 



328 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

black fly, which deposits its eggs in the leaf in the months 
of May and June. They may be destroyed by means of 
lime, sprinkled over the leaves in the form of powJer. For 
this purpose a wooden box of convenient size, having its 
bottom perforated with numerous small holes, is to be filled 
with lime. This being mounted on a pole and shaken over 
the tree, distributes the lime among the leaves, and the slugs 
are immediately destroyed. The labor is very trivial ; a 
man may cover a large tree in three or four minutes ; and 
the desired effect is certain. Fine earth shaken through a 
basket or perforated box will answer as well. 

' Another remedy, it is said, will prove equally effectual. 
It is a strong infusion of tar, made by pouring water on tar, 
and suffering it to stand two or three days, when it becomes 
strongly impregnated. This, if sprinkled over the leaves by 
means of an engine, will kill these vermin instantaneously. 
A strong decoction of tobacco will probably produce the de- 
sired effect, and tanner's bark put round the tree, it is said, 
will have a salutary tendency as a preventive.' — Thacher^s 
Orchardist. 

Forsyth recommends watering the ground where these in- 
sects are with soap-suds and urine, mixed with tobacco- 
water. Ducks admitted into a garden will destroy all within 
their reach. 

Wire-ioorm, or Red-wor.n. This insect is slender, and usu- 
ally about an inch long, with a hard coat, and a pointed 
head. Mr. William Mrody, of Saco, (Maine,) in a commu- 
nication to Hon. Josiah Quincy, published in the Massachu- 
setts Agricultural Repository, vol. iv. p. 353, observes, ' I am 
persuaded, from experience, that sea-sand, put under corn or 
potatoes v/ith manure, or spread on the land, will go far, if 
not wholly, to the total destruction of these destructive 
worms, on which nothing else seems to have any effect. It 
has a beneficial effect spread on land before ploughino-, or 
even after land is planted with corn or potatoes, not only to 
destroy the wire-worm and other insects, but to increase the 
crop. With my neighbors a load of sea-sand is considered 
as preferable to a load of the best manure, to mix in with 
their common barn manure, or to spread on their gardens 
and low flat land.' 

Probably sea-mud or sea-water would produce good effects 
as preservatives against this and other insects. 

Soaking seed corn in a solution of copperas in water, has 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 329 

been found effectual against this insect. See page 32 of this 
work. 

The Striped Bug, or Yellow Fly. This is a small insect 
of the coleoptera order, or such as have crustaceous elytra, or 
wing cases, like the beetle. The elytra of this bug are 
striped with yellow and black. They prey on the young 
plants of cucumbers, melons, squashes, and others of the 
cucurbitacece species. ' These insects may be considerably 
thinned by killing them in a dewy morning, when they have 
not the free use of their wings and cannot well escape. But 
nothing that I have tried has proved so effectual as sifting or 
sprinkling powdered soot upon the plants when the morning 
dew remains on them. This forms a bitter covering for the 
plants, which the bugs cannot endure the taste of.' — Deane 
' We would recommend sprinkling the plants with a little 
sulphur or Scotch snuff.' — Farmer's Assistant. But the surest 
defence against these insects is, inclosing the plants with a 
frame, and a muslin or gauze covering. 

For able and scientific descriptions of most of the insects 
which infest our fields and gardens, we would refer to a ' Dis- 
course delivered before the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 
ciety, by Thaddeus W. Harris,' published in the New Eng- 
land Farmer, vol. xi. p. 204, and following pages. 
28=^ 




AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



It was remarked by Sir John Sinclair, that the introduction 
of new agricultural implements into a district is often a mat- 
ter of the greatest difficulty, owing to the ignorance, the pre- 
judice, and obstinacy of farm servants and laborers. Many 
farmers, therefore, very absurdly retain their old implements, 
though convinced of their inferiority, rather than sour the 
tempers of their laborers by attempting to introduce new 
ones ; in many cases however they have succeeded by atten- 
tion and perseverance, and by rewarding their laborei's many 
new and valuable implements have been brought into general 
use. 

The farmers of New England are too enlightened, and have 
too much regard for their own best interest, to be under the 
dominion of such profitless prejudices. Accordingly, we find 
not only a very increasing demand for new and improved 
agricultural machines, tools, &c., but that our practical far- 
mers see that it is for their interest to procure the best. 

It is now about ten years since the agricultural warehouse 
was first established in Boston, 51 and 52 North Market street, 
J. R. Newell proprietor, and which has become so extensive 
and of so much importance to the community, as to induce the 
proprietor to continue and extend it in all its various branches 
for the accommodation of the practical and scientific farmer, 
by the introduction of new and useful implements of husbandry, 
and to furnish the best tools for his business. 

An establishment of this kind not only answers the above 
purpose, but serves as a depository in which the inventive 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



3ai 



artisan may place his articles for sale. The proprietor does 
not hesitate to say that among the variety of articles on hand 
at this establishment many are far superior in their form and 
construction, and far better adapted to the purpose for which 
they are intended, than any others which have been in use in 
this country. 




Thrashing Machines. Pope's improved thrashing machine 
was invented by the late Joseph Popp, Esq., of Hallowell, Maine, 
and has been in successful operation in different parts of the 
country for many years, and is found to be the best operatino- 
machine for all kinds of grain that has been in use ; it is weH 
adapted for getting out rice. 

Flagg's Thrashing Machine. This machine, invented by David 
Flagg, of New York, is very simple in its construction, and 
not liable to get out of order ; works free and easy, and is in 
very general use in the western part of the state of New York 
and much approved of, as. likewise his portable horse power' 
to which the thrashing machine is attached. ' 

Hale's Thrashing Machine. Hale's newly invented rice and 
grain thrashing machines are found on trial to be the most 
thorough and effective implements we have had in operation 
for the purpose intended; it is a very simple operating ma- 
chine, and powerful and quick in its motion ; does the" work 
well, separates and cleans the grain at the same time. This 
machme must be to the rice planter an indispensable imple- 
ment ; it requires but one man and a horse to work it. 

Marsh's Boring Apparatus, which is used to great advantage 
in boring for water. In using this apparatus much labor and 
expense is saved in sinking wells and reservoirs, and a great 
supply of the best water is obtained. While boring, an iron 
tube is sunk to any depth you please, until a sufficient quantity 
of water is procured. This mode of procuring a good and a 
sufficient quantity of the best water is used to sTeat'ad vantage 
in low marshy ground, and even if surrounded by tide wate'r. 



332 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



I By this mode of boring, good water may be obtained in the 
middle of the ocean. 




Straw Cutters. The straw cutter is a machine well worth 
the attention of every farmer, and should be in common use 
with every person feeding stock ; and from the great improve- 
ment and simplicity of the machines now in use, the work is 
done with great expedition and facility. It is a subject of great 
regret to every friend of the agricultural interest, that these 
machines are not in more general use. Every farmer who is 
disposed to use fodder to the best possible advantage, and pre- 
serve his animals in the best health, in all cases cuts his fod- 
der. For farther explanation of the profits and advantages 
arising from cutting fodder, the following statement is given : 

Mr. Benjamin HaWs account of the savings made hy the use of 
Straw Cutters, employed to cut Hay and Straw as Fodder for 
Horses. 

Mr. Hale is proprietor of a line of stages running between 

Newburyport and Boston. He says, 

The whole amount of hay purchased 
from April 1 to Oct. 1, 1816, (six 

months) and used at the stage sta- Tons. cwt. qrs. lbs, 
ble, was 32 4 10 

At twenty-five dollars per ton, (the 
lowest price at which hay was pur- 
chased in 1816,) $800 00 

From Oct. 1, 1816, to April 1, 1817, 
whole amount of hay and straw 
purchased for, and consumed by the 
same number of horses, viz. : 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 333 





T. 


cwt. 


qrs. 


lbs. 


Cost. 


Straw- 


16 


13 


3 


10 


$160 23 


Hay 


13 


14 


1 


00 


350 00 



$510 23 
Deduct on hand April 1, 1817, by es- 
timation, four t< ns more than there 
was Oct. 1, 1816, at twenty-five 
dollars per ton, 100 $410 23 



Saving by the use of the straw cutter, 
four months of the last six months, 
or the difference in expense in feed- 
ing with cut fodder and that which 
is uncut, $389 77 

Whole amount of hay used for the 
horses of the Salem stage, twenty- 
five in number, from April 1 to T. cwt. qrs. lbs, 
Oct. 1, 1816, viz. : 22 

At thirty dollars per ton, (the lowest 

price in Salem,) $660 GO 

Whole amount consumed by the same 
number of horses, from Oct. 1, 1816, 
to April 1, 1817, 

T. cwt. qrs. lbs. Cost. 

Straw 15 13 $187 80 

Hay 2 15 81 00 

$268 80 



Saving in using chopped fodder five 
months, $391 20 

Total saving in using the straw cut- 
ter nine months, viz. : at Newbury- 
port, four months, $389 77 

At Salem, five months, 391 20 



Total, $780 97 

The members of the board of trustees of the Massachusetts 
Agricu'tural society, to whom the above account was commu- 
nicated by Mr. Hale, w^ere informed by that gentleman, that he 
used no more Errain from Oct. 1816, to April, 1817, than was 
used from April, 1816, to Oct. 1816. 

Remarks. — There is not only much saving and gain in cutting 
fodder when hay is low, but the animal is kept in better health, 
more particularly old horses, and such as may have been in- 
jured in their wind. 

It is a fact that horses will live and continue serviceable 
much longer when fed on cut fodder. The machine invented 
and manufactured by Willis, known as ' Willis' improved Straw 



334 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



and Hay Cutter, ^^ is the most durable and best operating ma- 
chine that has come to our knowledge ; and what is worthy 
of notice, they require but one person to operate them, which 
is not the case with many other machines ; in this there is a 
gieat saving in cutting feed, and likewise the fodder may be 
cut of any length required ; the knives being placed in front of 
the machine can be at all times examined and kept in good 
order. The feeding rollers are so constructed that while the 
machine is in the act of cutting, the rollers ^ease to feed, which 
renders the cutting operation very easy. 

Eastmari's Straw Cutter, with improved side gearing and! 
cylindrical knives. This machine is well calculated for large] 
and extensive establishments. Price, fifty to sixty dollars. 

Wdlis'' Vertical Straw and Hay Cutter. It is well constructed, 
made of the best materials, and of the best workmanship. Fed 
and worked by one man, works free and easy, and not liable 
to get out of order. It will cut from thirty-five to forty bushels 
per hour. Price thirty-five dollars. For the cost, this is the 
best machine in use. 

This is to certify, that I have used Willis' improved straw 
cutter the past season, and consider it the best machine for the 
purpose now in use. NATHAN ADAMS. 

The Common Dutch Hand Cutting Machine, is one of those im- 
plements in common use, and known to every practical far- 
mer ; and is considered as good a machine for a small esta- 
blishment as any in use. Will cut from ten to twenty bushels 
per hour. 

Safford's Improved and Common Straw Cutter, with side gear- 
ing ; well approved, and is in very general use. 



I 




Root Steamer. The above cut represents a root steamer, de- 
scribed in the Farmer's Magazine, (a work printed in Scot- 
land,) vol. xviii. page 74, and alluded to in page 54 of the pre- 
sent work. It consists of a boiler, and wooden chest or box 
placed over it or near it. The box maybe of any size, and so 
placed as to be supplied and emptied by wheel and hand bar- 
rows in the easiest manner, either by the end or top, or both, 
being made to open. ' If the box is made eight feet by five and 
three deep, it will hold as many potatoes as will feed fifty cows 
for twenty-four hours, and these may be steamed in an hour.' 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 335 




Ploughs. This implement, one of the oldest and most useful 
employed on a farm, has undergone of late years a wonderful 
change in aril its most essential parts, and has been greatly- 
improved. The cast iron plough is now most generally used 
among the best farmers, and considered decidedly the best. 
Among the different ploughs now made of cast iron, Howard's 
stands unrivafed. They have been used at the different cat- 
tle shows and ploughing matches, and have in all cases been 
approved by them. Atlhe Brighton cattle show at the exhibi- 
tion in October, 1832, they recetved the premium of ten dollars, 
awarded as being the best plough presented. 

[Extract from the Report of the Committee.] 
' The ploughs were all of cast iron, and by six of the most 
approved manufacturers. The one by Mr. Charles Howard, 
of Hingham, was a superior implement, considerable improve- 
ments having recently been made by him, in making the mould- 
board longer" than usual, and swelling the breast of the share, 
so as to make every part bear equally ; by which means the 
plouo-h runs more true and steady, is always free from carry- 
ing forward any earth, and wears perfectly bright ; and being 
made on mathematical principles, he informed the committee 
he could make the different sizes always the same.' 

JOHN PKINCE, 
EBENEZER HEATH, 
JOHN BAKER, 3d. 
' The duty of awarding a premium " to the plough which 
shall be adjudged best of all those used at the ploughing match," 
devolved on the two committees, and they agreed unanimously 
to award it to Mr. Charles Howard, of Hingham, for his new 
and improved plough ; ten dollars.' 

GORHAM PARSONS, 

Chairman of Single Teams. 
JOHN PRINCE. 

Chairman of Double Teams. 

Tice's Plough. This plough is considered the next best 
plough to Howard's; it has taken a number qf premiums at 
the different ploughing matches, and is highly approved by all 
those who have used them, as they turn a good furrow, leaving 
the sod smooth and level. 



336 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



Side-hill Plough. This plough, for which a premium was 
given at Brighton, is found to be a very great improvement on 
the ploughs now in use, for working on side-hills. The mould- 
board is so constructed as to shift oh each side, as may be re- 
quired, by turning on the under side of the plough as the team 
turns at each end of the furrow. 

Howard's Improved Double Mould-board Plough. This plough 
is well calculated for hirrowing out land, sphtting hills, plough- 
ing between corn, potato, and vegetable cultivation, to great 
advantage. A great labor saving machine ; saves nearly all 
the hoeing of corn or potatoes. 

Bigelow's Plough. This plough is made of wrought iron, and 
is in general use, and very much approved, being very strong 
and quite light ; does the work well with little labor. 

Morse's Plough. Similar to Bigelow's, but a better made ar- 
ticle. 

Cary and Warren's common Wood Plough. Of all sizes. 

Shovel Plough, and Plough Scrapers. Of all sizes, made to 
order at the shortest notice. 

Quaker Hand Plough. For gardens, a very useful implement, 
and used to great advantage in garden cultivation. Steel 
pointed. 




Chandler's Improved Double Harroiv. This harrow is so con- 
structed as to be in two parts, and joined together by hinges 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



337 



on two straight centre pins, so that one part can be raised and 
swuncr over on the otlier half as occasion requires. Its advan- 
tage over the common harrow is, that it is less liable to be 
stopped, as one side may be eievated or turned to a perpendicu- 
lar position, while r^e other side proceeds horizontally it may 
thus be drawn nearer to rocks, trees, &c. It will likewise bet- 
ter adapt itself to ridu'es, hollows, and uneven land. 

HaricotVs Road Harrow. Ox and horse harrows of all sizes 
fixed and expanding. ' ' 




Cultivators. Howard and Seaver's patent fixed and ex- 
panding cultivators, of all sizes. The cultivator is an imple- 
ment that is coming into very general use in all parts of the 
country, and serves in a great measure in lieu of hoeincr. The 
teeth are so constructed as to raise the ground, and leaves it 
very light and free for cultivation, and at the same time de- 
stroys the weeds ; and is well adapted to southern and western 
cultivation. 

These cultivators are adapted to all kinds of ground, for 
running through rows of corn, potatoes, and vegetables of all 
kinds; and used in the cultivation of hops, instead of the ploucrh 
and hoe, and are found far superior to either. It is likewise 
well adapted to harrow in grain and grass seed; and for the 
many uses to which this implement may be applied, it must be 
considered one of the most valuable tools that is used on a 
farm, and is coming into very general use. 
_ This certifies that I have used Seaver's cultivator, and find 
it a nmch better article to work among corn and potatoes, than 
any machine that I have ever tried ; it clears the weeds be- 
tueen the rows much more effectually than either a plouo-h or 
harrow, and saves a great deal of labor. ^ 

Framingham, 1834. BENJ. WHEELER. 

Tree and Bush Pullers. The tree and bush puller is one of 
the most useful and effective implements in use ; it is employed 
m clearing land of under brush, small trees, barberry and other 
aushes. It is of i ron, of any size or dimensions required, some- 



338 



THE COMPLETE FARMEK. 



thinff in the form of a rake or claw, with the teeth much bent. 
The o-round is loosened aroand the tree or bush which is to be 
removed. The teeth or claws are entered on one side, a horse 
or oxen are attached by a chain to the claw and drawn on the 
oPTDOsite side. One man and horse or one yoke of oxen will 
do more work with this implement than five men can do with- 
out it in dicrcrin2j and clearing land. _ 

Broad-Cast Machine. Bennet's broad-cast machine. This ma- 
chine which is designed for sowing broaa-cast, is lound, wnen 
used on smooth and even ground, to answer a good purpose, 
sows very regular and even, and is used with great despatch. 




^;^\v-■^■^'' 



GauWs Patent Churn, which has been in use for several 
Tears is the most approved and convenient churn now m use. 
The particular advantage is the facility with which it can be 
worked. From its quick and powerful motion it will produce the 
greatest quantity of butter from the same quantity of cream; is 
easy to clean, and no way liable to get out of order. 

Mr. Fessen-den, Editor of the New England Farmer 

Sir— In answer to the inquiry respecting the Gault s ctiurn 
which I purchased at the agricultural warehouse, I give it as 
my decided opinion, that they are the best churns I have ever 
seen in use. They are very convenient to keep clean, bring 
the butter very easy, and require not more than titteen lo 

twenty minutes to do a churning. TjirvivrnT T»<5 

Respectfully yours, B. REYNOLDb. 

Sharon, June 15, 1829. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



339 



Stone Churn. A small article, well calculated for small fami- 
lies. 

Tree Brushes. Pickering's improved wire brushes are found 
to be the most effective implements for the purpose of clear- 
ing trees and destroying caterpillars, of any thing that has 
ever been used. Thic biush, which is made in a spiral or 
taper form, and abcut eight inches long, is fixed on the end of 
a pole, the small part of the brush is entered into the webs, and 
a moderate twist of two or three turns takes the web and all 
connected with it clear from the tree. It should be used very 
early in the morning and late in the afternoon, when the in- 
sects are in their nests. 




Cheese Presses. Quakers' improved self-governing cheese- 
press. The press is so constructed as to govern and regulate 
itself, in pressing a cheese of any size, without any weights. 

Leaven's Improved Cheese Press, which is so constructed that 



340 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



seven or fourteen pounds weight will press any common sized 
cheese. 

Cheese Hoops, different sizes. 

Cheese Cloths. 

Curd Mills, for cutting cheese curds, which facilitates the 
labor of the dairy. 

Lactometers. This invention is found to be of great utility 
and advantage in testing the quality of cream given by each 
cow. It consists of a small mahogany frame which contains 
four or six glass tubes of ten inches in length and half an inch 
in diameter. These tubes are divided inlo tenths, and num- 
bered from one to ten, which show the quantity of cream given 
by each cow. This little article is found very useful, and is 
much used in lars"e dairies. 




Boris'' Improved Patent Dirt Scraper. This road or dirt scra- 
per, invented by Shadrock Davis, is used to great advantage 
in removing dirt or gravel, more particularly in stony lands, 
from the peculiar construction of the points, which are similar 
to those of a plough point. They enter the ground very free 
and easy, fill and discharge themselves, and are easily managed 
by one horse or a yoke of oxen. Ploughing is unnecessary 
where these shovels are used. 

AVe the undersigned hereby certify that we have used Davis' 
patent plough-pointed road and dirt scraper, and we consider 
it a great improvement on the common road scraper, and can 
with confidence recommend it to the public, as being superior 
to any implement of the kind we have ever used, particularly 
in sandy and stony land, being so constructed as to load itself 
without the use of ploughing, which is common in using the old- 
fashion dirt scraper. We consider it one of the greatest labor- 
saving implements to the road-maker that can be used, and as 
such we fully reccmm.end it to the public. 

ABM. WASHBURN, Bridjreivater. 

HENRY S. PACKARD, North Dartmouth. 

BRADFORD HOWLAND, South Dartmouth. 

Beatson''s Scarifier. These implements, which are very gene- 
rally used in Europe, and the southern states, are well calcu- 
lated for free cultivation, are much approved in pulverizino- 
the land, leaving the soil light and fine. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



341 



Pruning Shears. This article, which was formerly made by 
"Wakefield of Gardener, has since been very much improved, 
and is now considered as one of the best and most approved 
implements in use. and has taken the place of tlie pruning 
knifie ; and for gra pe vines and small trees is considered much 
the best, as upon an easy drawing stroke it cuts very smooth 
and fair, without injury to the bark or wood. 

Scythes. Farwell's patent cast steel concave scythes, which 
are found, from the peculiar form and shape in which they 
are made, to cut upor the principle of a drawing stroke, and 
are very easily ground and kept in good order, and are con- 
sidered the best scythes that are manufactured. From the pe- 
culiar construction of these scythes the edge is always left true 
in the middte of the scythe. 

Scythe Rijks. Austin's and Derby's rifles are considered the 
best articles made for the purpose. They are about the size of 
the common sand rifle, are cased with line emery, and give a 
very sharp and good edge. They are of very general use, 
and good substitutes for the scythe stone. 

Scythe Snathe. This article, though in very common use, has 
been altered and improved to great advantage within a few 
years past. The snathes manufactured by Vickery Baker for 
the proprietors of the agricultural warehouse are found to be 
the most approved and best calculated to work free and easy. 
The regular quick turn at the heel, and the strong and substan- 
tial iron rings which secure the scythe and nibs, are considered 
a great improvement in those snathes. 




Discharging and Revolving Horse Rake. The discharging horse 
rake is a very plain and simple operating implement. It is so 
constructed as to load itself, by raising the teetii a little, and 
29^ 



342 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



the horse drawing it forward when filled so far as to form a 
winrow of sufficient size; a slide is then pressed forward 
which discharges the hay. By raising the rake we pass the 
nrst wmrow and commence a second, and thus continue until 
we pass over the field. 

The revolving rake which has been in general use in most 
parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is found to be one of 
tne most useful and labor-saviner machines now in use. One 
man and horse, with a boy to lead, will rake on an average 
irom ten to fifteen acres per day with ease, and do the work 
well, ihey are coming into very general use in all parts of 
the country, and will no doubt in a few years ' supersede the 
use of the common hand rake. 



I 




Hams' Improved Paint Mill. This mill can be used by hand, 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 3^*5 

horse, or any other power that it may be attached to, and 
works to great advantage. From the very plain and simple 
manner of its construction, it is easily taken to pieces and 
cleaned, and shifted from one place to another, and used with 
great facility, and is considered one of the best and most use- 
lul mills in use. 

CERTIFICATES FOR HARRIS' PAINT MILL. 

I the undersigned hereby certify that I have used Harris' im- 
proved patent paint mill, purchased at the agricultural ware- 
house, Boston, and consider it the best and most convenient 
mill for the purpose intended of any I have ever used It is 
very readily cleaned and put in order. 

Hingham, Feb. 20, 1834. SETH B. GUSHING. 

I the undersigned do certify that I have used one of Harris' 
paint mills for grinding a variety of paint for about two years 
and do not hesitate to give it the preference to every other 
mill I have ever used. THOMAS B. WESTERN 

Ware, May 26, 1834. 

I h-reby certify that I have been in the paint business for 
ftfteen years, and have used different kinds of paint mills and 
have not found any so good as Harris' patent mill I have 
ground with one of these mills one hundred pounds of lead in 
two hours. I, BARTLETT. 

I have used one of Harris' patent paint mills for frrindino- 
small colors for some time past, and find it the best miTi for the 
purpose in use. GEORGE YENDELL. 

Boston, June 20, 1834. 

Wilhs' Patent Brass Syringe. This syringe is intended for 
watering all kinds of green-house and out-door plants and for 
preserving grape vines from mildew, and has been used with a 
solution prepared for that purpose, with great success. See 
the following recipe : 

Take a pint and a half of sulphur, and a lump of the best 
unslacked lime ; put these in a vessel of about seven crallons 
measurement; let the sulphur be thrown in first, and the hme 
over it ; then pour in a pail of boiling water, stir it well and 
let it stand half an hour ; then fill the vessel with cold water 
and after stirring well again, allow the whole to settle • after 
iJn^^u^ become settled dip out the clear liquid into a barrel and 
fill the barrel with cold water, and it is then fit for use ' You 
next proceed with a syringe holding about a pint and a half 
and throw the liquid with it on the vines in every direction so 
as to completely cover foliage, fruit, and wood; this should be 
particularly done when the fruit is just forming, and about one- 
third the size of a pea, and may be continued twice or thrice 
a week for two or three weeks. The whole process for one or 
two hundred grape vines need not exceed half an hour 



344 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 




Winnowing Machines. Holmes' improved winnowing ma- 
chine is one of the best that is in use. It is very plain and 
simple in its construction, and very powerful in its operation ; 
is well calculated for cleaning all kinds of grain, and may be 
applied to many other purposes, such as cleanmg rice, coffee, 
&c. 

Elliot's patent horizontal mill is for the same purpose. 
Though smaller and more compact, is found equally as good ; 
is considered as an improvement on the common winnowing 
machines now in use. The motion of the flyers is horizontal, 
and the sieves have a forward and backward motion. 

Grain Cradles. This article, like the scythe snathe, has under- 
gone a very great alteration and is much improved ; they are 
made much lighter, the fingers or arms are secured by braces 
of suitable sized brass wire, regulated by screws in such a man- 
ner as to be let in or out as circumstances may require. The 
scythe is well secured, and finished in a superior manner, a,nd 
made of the best cast steel. 

Cast Steel and Common Axes. This very common article 
among our farmers is one of the most useful implements ever 
invented. Colins and Morgan's cast steel axes have been con- 
sidered as the best, and most approved in form and shape, and 
are warranted in every respect to be of the best quality. They 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



345 



are finished in the most perfect manner, a.nd ground to a fine 
smooth cutting edge. 

Hatchets, clea^ ors, and many other tools, made by diflferent 
workmen, and finished in the same manner. 




Cast Steel^Shovels and Spades. Ames' impro''cd Cast Steel back 
Strapped Shovels and Spades are very superior in every re- 
spect to the common iron and steel shovels. They wear much 
longer, continue brighter, more sharp, and are used with great 
ease. This article, though one of the oldest and most common 
implements in use, has been much improved. Also a great 
variety of other kinds of spades and shovels, made by different 
manufacturers. Irish shovels and spades with long handles. 




Hoes. Great improvement has been made in this article of 
late. A great variety of hoes are now manufactured, of diffe- 
rent forms. Those made by Morgan are considered the best 
now in use ; they are made of the best of steel, crooked neck, 
and socket handles. 

The Prong or Potato Hoe is one of the most useful, simple, 
and improved implements that is employed. It was invent- 
ed and used in the first instance for digging potatoes ; it was 
afterwards found as useful for planting as for digging them, 
and likewise is used for almost every purpose for which a hoe 
has been used ; and they are employed to the greatest possible 
advantage in stony or rocky lands, and in planting new land; 
they are likewise used as a garden hoe, being- one of the best 
implements a gardener can have in use, or in working between 
rows of vegetables, digging round young trees, loosening the 
ground, &c. 



346 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



Lord Ve-non's New TiVage Hoe. The utility of this garden 
hoe will be duly appreciated upon trial. Few gardeners or 
nursery men employed in gardening will be without them 
when once they have been used. They are employed to great 
advantage in deep tillage ; in many cases they are superior to 
digging or forking the land. 

^Bill-Hook. This article is much used in England in prun- 
ing and clearing brush, and is a good tool as a substitute 
for the pruning saw and chisel, and can be used with more ex- 
pedition. 

Glass Covers for Plants. These covers are used for cover- 
ing plants — protecting them in their growth and preventing 
mildew. 




Garden and Field Rollers. E. Phinney, Esq., of Lexington, 
has made great and successful use of the roller for grass land, 
and has given a description and dimensions of w^hat he con- 
siders the most convenient and best proportion, viz. : The rol- 
lers to be six feet in length and five feet in diameter, placed on 
an iron axle of the same length by one inch and a half in di- 
ameter ; the roller to be made of oak or any hard wood plank, 
each plank to be aoout four inches wide and two and a half 
thick ; the roller is made in two parts, of three feet each ; each 
end of the axle is secured in a frame which is made of joist, of 
a suitable size to receive the end of the axle; to this frame is 
attached the shafts in which the horse is, or a tongue to which 
the oxen are attached, which completes the rollers. 

Mr. Phinney says this sized roller presents' the following 
among other advantages, viz. : If the ground is very mellow 
the large sized roller presses the small stones more directly 
into the ground and renders the surface more regular and 
even ; the large roller also moves easier, and the weight fall- 
ing more directly upon the small stones, they are, as he has be- 
fore observed, better pressed into tho earth, the lumps of earth 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



347 



more finely broken, and the surface left much smoother. For 
garden rollers or gravel walks the stone or iron rollers are 
prepared, of different sizes. 

Grass and Edging Shears. These shears are for the purpose 
of editing banks and slopes, for trimming and keeping the 
banks'^ in good order, and the oftener they are used the more 
thrifty and thick the grass will grow. 











Corn Sheller. A corn sheller is one of the most convenient 
and labor-saving implements that the practical farmer has in 
use. Various machines for this purpose have been invented. 
The most improved and best adapted for common use are those 
of Harrison, with the patent vertical wheel. It can be employed 
in all cases for large or small sized ears. It is very simple in 
its construction and durable in its or»eration, and no way hable 
to get out of order ; one man can work it to good advantage, 
thouo-h a man to turn and a boy to feed it works it much better 
than'^one alone. In this way it will shell ten to twelve bushels 
per hour. They are so li^ht and portable as to be easily re- 
moved from place to place, and one machine will serve for 
several families, or even the inhabitants of a small town. 



348 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



^^^^^t^^^^^^^§»§^^^g^^^^^»^^isi^^?^$^;^^^:?^i^^ 




i 



Willis^ Stationary Horse Power, and Corn Cracker Attached. 
Corn and Cob Cracker. This mill, which is calculated for 
grinding cob and corn together, is found to make the best pro- 
Vender and the most economical food for fattening hogs or 
horses. It is so constructed as to be used with a conimon grist 
mill or separate, as circumstances may require, and may be 
worked by a single horse or any other power. From thirty to 
forty bushels per hour have been ground in these mills. 




ill ■l!yii!iii!iillilii lilt lliiiiiliiii^ 




Willis^ and Hale^s improved Portable Horse Power, may be 
worked by one or more horses, mules, or oxen. As every 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



349 



farmer keeps more or less of these animals, no additional ex- 
pense is required in working these powers. They are calcu- 
lated to propel any kind of machinery or agricultural imple- 
ments in common use, such as thrashing machines, cider mills, 
corn and cob mills, straw and hay cutters, corn shellers, 
grindstones, winnowing machines, Ace. ; they are likewise well 
adapted for machine shops, in working the circular or web 
saw, turning lathes, or any machinery where power is requir- 
ed. The alterations and improvements made in this power 
render it very simple in its construction and easy in its ope- 
ration, and not liable to get out of order Avhen properly made. 
They occupy but the small space of nine feet by two, and are 
easily removed ; they are truly labor-saving machines, and must 
come into general use with farmers and mechanics. They are 
likewise well adapted for the use of plantations, being calcu- 
lated for working saw or roller gins, and other purposes to 
which they may oe applied ; they are so portable as to be trans- 
ported at a moderate expense, and may be put in operation by 
any person of common capacity. 

Bark or Plaster Mills. The Troy bark and plaster mills. 
These mills are altered and much improved from the old-fash- 
ioned mill which has been in use for many years. 

Family Hand Mills. Willis' improved patent family or plan- 
tation mill, calculated for grinding corn, coffee, &c., has a 
I small balance wheel which regulates its operation and causes 
it to work free and easy. 




Grindstones on Friction Rollers. Grindstones of different sizes 
hung on friction rollers and moved with a foot treader, are fo'md 
to t^ a great improvement on the present mode of hanging 
30 



350 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



grindstones. The ease with which they move upon the rollers 
renders them very easy to turn with the foot, by which the labor 
of one man is saved ; and the person in the act of grinding can 
govern the stone more to his mind by having the complete 
control of his work. Stores hung in this manner are com- 
ing daily more in use, and wherever used give universal satis- 
faction. The rollers can be attached to stones hung in the 
common way. 

Hay Knives. These knives are for the purpose of cutting the 
hay in the mow, and are a desirable article for that purpose, and 
almost indispensable where hay is stacked in the yard ; and the 
farmer would wish to spend his hay to the best advantage. 

Peat Knives, for cutting peat ; an article which is daily 
increasing in use foj fuel, and in many parts of our country is 
found in great abundance, and if cut at a suitable season of 
the year, is used to good advantage. 

Pomace Knives. These knives are almost indispensable in a 
cider country. 

Ditching Knives, for ditching Low Lands. 

Cast Steel Edging and Trimming Knives. These knives are 
calculated for edging and trimming grass-plats, borders, &c.; 
are found to be one of the most convenient tools a gardener 
can have in use. 




KendalVs Improved Rotary Pump. This pump, which is a 
great improvement upon the various rotary pumps now in 
use, is very plain and simple in its construction, and no way 
liable to get out of order ; but works with great facility, throws 
a constant and regular stream by a very simple operation 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



351 



of a crank, and is calculated for all kinds of domestic purpo- 
ses, as well as for green-houses, factories, &:c. There are 
different sizes of these pumps manufactured, which are so con- 
structed as to answer as forcing pumps in such a manner as to 
carry water to any distance, and are a good substitute for an 
engine. 




Flaggh Thrashing Machine and Horse Power. This machine, 
mvented by David Flagg, of New York, is very simple in its 
construction, and not liable to get out of order, and is in very 
general use in the western part of the state of New York. 

Zinc Hollow Ware, either for culinary use or the dairy, by 
wholesale or retail, may be had at the agricultural warehouse. 



352 



THE COMPLETE FARMER 



The proprietor is sole aoent for vending- the above wares. The 
prices of" this ware will, upon examination, be found not to 
var}'- materially from that of tin and iron, yet as durable as 
iron, easily cleansed, not subject to rust, giving the article 
cooked or kept in it no unpleasant taste, and containing in 
itself no poison like copper, brass, and lead. 

Zinc kettles will be found to cook rice, hominy, and all kinds 
of sweetmeats, better than any other kind of metal, neither 
discoloring nor varying the flavor of the substance cooked; 
and for these purposes, it will ere long be substituted for brass 
and copper, to avoid the poisonous corrosions of those metals. 

Zinc pans, for the dairy, will be found by the dairy-woman 
an object worthy of her attention, from these considerations: 
that they will greatly outlast any other pans, that the same 
size pans will produce one-sixth more cream or butter, and of 
a superior flavor; they are more easily cleansed, and will keep 
milk sweet longer by a number of hours. Zinc tubs and firkins 
will keep butter sweet several days longer in hot weather than 
those of wood or other kinds of metal. This has been a sub- 
ject of experiment, and the results safely warrant the state- 
ment. Hence families who prefer sweet butter to rancid, will 
do well to avail themselves of these tubs, for keeping theix but- 
ter sweet and retainino^ its flavor. 




Scott Keith and Co.h Improved Cast Iron Pump. This pump was 
invented by Jesse Reed, of Bridgewater, and proves to be the 
most sunple and best constructed pump that is in use, being 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



353 



made of cast iron, which is considered the best metal which wa- 
ter can pass through; is very durable and cheap. It has metal 
boxes so constructed, that in raisinsr the handle the lower box 
or valve is opened, and the water let off, which prevents its 
freezing. They are so plain and simple in their construction, 
that they can be put up or taken down by any common work- 
man, and no way liable to get out of order. They are attached 
to wooden logs or lead pipes, and are well calculated for all 
domestic purposes. 




Cattle Chains. These chains have of late been introduced for 
the purpose of securing cattle to the stall — are found to be the 
safest and most convenient mode of fastening cows and oxen 
in the stanchion. They consist of a chain v.'hich passes round 
the animal's neck, and by a ring attached to the stall plays 
freely up and down, and leaves the animal at liberty to lie 
down or rise at pleasure, and keeps him perfectly secure. 




Brooks^ Patent Silk Spinning Machine. Brooks' silk spinning 
and reeling machine, which was invented by himself, is founc 
30* 



354 



THE COBIPLETE FARMEE 



to be a very simple and easy operating machine, and yet one 
of the most perfect that has been invented for the purpose of 
reeling and twisting silk from the cocoons, and manufacturing 
it into sewing silk. By the different arrangements of this ma- 
chine, it will operate upon a single or double thread, as may 
be required, and prepare it for twisting or weaving. Experi- 
ence has fully proved, that by uniting the filaments of silk as 
they are drawn from the cocoons, wet in tlieir natural gluti- 
nous substance, before they dry, the thread is more firm, 
smooth, and strong. The simplicity of the machine, and the 
very easy way in which it is used, bring it within the com- 
prehension and capacity of any person to use it. Mr. Brooks 
has received a premium for his invention from several socie- 
ties, and of late a premium and medal from the Scott's legacy, 
in Philadelphia. 

Lightning Rods and Glass Blocks. From the repeated and 
almost daily occurrences which happen from the effect of 
lightning, occasioning death and destruction of much proper- 
ty, it is a matter of surprise that every farmer does not have 
attached to his dwelling-house and barn a lightning rod, and 
guarded in the best possible manner, which is done by passing 
the rod through glass blocks which are constructed for the 
purpose. 




Ox Yokes. Many improvements have been made in this ar- 
ticle, and even in the bows and keys. 

Brass and Composition Balls. These balls are not only orna- 
mental, but are very useful in preventing the animal from 
hooking, or being in other respects mischievous and trouble- 
some. They have been in very general use, and add much to 
the appearance of the animal. 




Pomroy^s Patent Spring Staple, for securing horses. The 
improvement in this staple is such that if the horse is cast, or 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 



355 



in any way entangled, he can disengage and free himself. 
Many fine and valuable horses are lost for tiie want of this 
self- regulating staple. 




Willis^ Improved Seed Sower. This machine, which was de- 
signed in the first instance for sowing small seed in gardens, 
is found on using to sow large as well as small seed to ad- 
vantage, and proves to be one of the best field and garden im- 
plements in use. It is particularly adapted for sowing ruta 
baga, turnip, &c. The saving of seed in the use of this imple- 
ment is quite sufficient to pay the cost of it in one season, and 
the seed is sown more regular and even. 

Harden's Improved Seed Sowhio^ Machine. This is one of the 
best labor-saving machines in use, calculated for sowing small 
seeds in the field or garden. 

Carriage Lifter, or levers, for raising wagons, carts, or car- 
riages of all kinds, or for raising loads, pressing goods, &c. 
Being a small handy implement, it may be taken in a carriage 
in travelling, and found very convenient and handy for the 
purpose. Carriage winches and wrenches are likiewise vpry 
handy and convenient travelling companions, and should al- 
ways be at hand. 

Apple Purer. The apple paring machine is used to great ad- 
vantage in that part of the country where much attention is 
given to paring and drying apples for market. This is a small 
simple machine, which is very convenient for the use it is de- 
signed for, and is as much of a time and labor-saving machine 
as those which are more expensive and complicated. 

Patent Curry -Combs, and Brass Teeth Cattle Cards. Patent 
and common curry-combs, and cards with brass teeth. No 
stock farm should ever be kept without a good supply of these 
articles, and constant use being made of them. 

Straw Splitters. This little implement, which is plain and 
simple in its construction, is one of the most useful implements, 
and should be introduced and used in every family, in town 
and country. 



356 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

Saw and Roller Gins. Cotton gins have become the indis- 
pensable articles of the cotton planter. A new roller gin has ^ 
been invented by a Mr. Whittemore, and is coming into very i 
general use; it is readily worked by hand or horse power. 

Stamps, of ail descriptions, for marking and branding the far- 
mer's tools, of which every farmer who is in the habit of lend- 
i/ig and accommodating his neighbors and friends, as all farmers 
are and must be, should have every tool marked with his name. 
This prevents the loss of many tools, and much inquiry and 
trouble among neighbors. 

Garden Reels and Lines. Very handy and convenient imple- 
ments for the gardener in laying out his borders, beds, alleys, 
&c. 

Pruning Chisels and Saws. Of all the implements that are 
used on the farm there are none used to so much profit and 
advantage as the pruning knife and saw . Too m.any of our 
fruit and ornamental trees are suffered to run to wood ; from 
this circumstance we have less and poorer fruit. 

Manure and Hay Fork. No one implement has undergone so 
thorough an investigation and improvement as the hay and 
manure fork. Since the first introduction or use of these arti- 
cles, great improvement has been made in the form of them, 
and the quality of steel from which they are made. Among 
the most approved manure forks in use are those of Willis, 
cast steel, manufactured from one piece, in which no welding 
is necessary. These forks have been in common use for many 
years. They are so well tempered as to have that degree of 
elasticity that they discharge the manure with the greatest 
ease ; they are in no way liable to clog or foul, and are very 
strong and durable. Unfortunately for this article, there has 
been great quantities of a very inferior kind made and sold in 
the form and shape of the true patent ones, which havmg been 
made of very poor steel and slighted in the manufacturing of 
them, has injured the use of this very useful and almost indis- 
pensable article. 

Budding and Pruning Knives. A great variety of budding 
and pruning knives are now used, of various forms and shapes : 
some very superior ones. 

Fruit Shears. Those shears which are attached to a pole are 
for the purpose of taking off fruit from the extreme branches 
of trees, or such parts as are not to be come at conveniently in 
any other way. For this purpose they are found to be very 
convenient and useful ; they are hkewise used for taking off 
scions, &c. 

Tree Scrapers. This article, which is indispensable in keeping 
trees in good order, should be used every season in removing 
the dry and hard bark from trees, to increase a quick and 
vigorous growth, and keep them in full bearing. 

Transplanting Trowels and Forks. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 357 

Post Augers and Post Axes. Those two implements are used 
for one and the same purpose, that of mortising posts. 

Pickaxe. A common but very useful article, on an im- 
proved plan. 

Post Spoons. With this implement and a common crow-bar, 
posts are set with great advantage and expedition. 

Stable Door Hasps, for the purpose of securing barn or stable 
doors, gates, &c. 

Farnhain's Improved Patent Grater Cider Mill. Ihe improve- 
ment in this mill is in grinding, or rather grating the apples 
very fine, so that all the juice is pressed out ; and produces a 
greater quantity of lir}uor from the same quantity of pomace. 
The above mills are in extensive operation, and very much ap- 
proved of.* They will grind two bushels of apples per minute, 
and are in no way liable to get out of order. 

With little alteration it can be made one of the best vegetable 
grinders for grinding or cutting food for animals. 

Cider Presses. Presses of different descriptions to corres- 
pond with the cider mills. 

Vegetable Cutter. Leavitt's improved patent vegetable cutter, 
for cutting ruta baga, mangel- .vurtzel, turnips, &c. Cutting 
those kinds of vegetables is found to be very beneficial to ani- 
mals, particularly to milch cows, not only by increasing the 
quantity, but the quality of the milk. It is a very perfect and 
complete machine for the purpose. 

Willis^ Improved Family Sausage Filler. This machine, which 
is intended for filling sausages, is one of the most convenient 
and expeditious things for the purpose that can be conceived 
of. One man will do more in preparing and filling sausages 
with this machine, than ten men can in the old manner of work- 
ing them. 



Fessenden's Patent Lamp Boiler and Tea-kettle. The lamp ap- 
paratus for heating water, &c. here represented, has been 
found very useful in small families, and such persons as may 
wish to prepare tea or coffee drink, cook eggs, oysters, &c., in 



358 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

their own apartments, without the trouble or inconvenience 
of a wood or coal fire. It is very convenient in public houses, 
coflfee-houses, and other places where it is wished to keep any- 
hot liquid constantly on hand. Besides answering all the pur- 
poses of what is called the nurse lamp, it may be made to boil 
from one pint to a gallon of water, by a method which in many 
cases will be found the most economical and expeditious which 
can be devised. 

Description of the Cut. — [A] Sheet iron case, in which the 
tea-kettle, boiler, &;c. may be placed, removable at pleasure. 
It has a hole in the bottom to admit the heat of the lamp to 
pervade the bottom and sides of the boiler. [B] Lamp with 
five or six wicks, more or less, placed when in use under said 
case. [C] Pan or boiler, which, when in use, is placed in the 
sheet iron case. [D] Tea-kettle in its place for boiling, [E] 
A small sheet iron cylinder, a little tapering, so as to form the 
frustrum of a hollow cone. This is occasionally placed within 
the case, so as to surround the hole in its bottom, in order to 
place upon it a coffee-pot, tea-pot, flask, tin porringer, or other 
small vessel in which it may be wished to heat water. 

Ploughshares. Wrought and cast iron ploughshares of all 
sizes, fitted and prepared in such a manner as to be at all 
times ready and fit for immediate use. 

Patent and Common Horse Phlemes. The patent phlemes' are 
a very great improvement on the common kind, and in the 
hands of an experienced and careful person is used with per- 
fect safety, and is very effectual in its operation. 

Carter's Patent Guidebourd. Made by branding the letters 
and figures on boards ; when done in this manner, are more 
legible and durable than the usual mode of painting. A full 
set of letters and figures will be furnished, calculated to an- 
swer all the purposes for one town. 

Directions for using the Brands. — The brands are to be heat- 
ed to a cherry red, then applied to the board, and guided by a 
straight piece tacked on to keep them in a line. The board is 
then to be lightly planed over, and the white lead applied in 
the usual manner with a brush. The black letters will not 
lose their brightness, for the durability of charcoal is well 
known. STANLEY CARTER. 

Bee-Hives. Dr. Thacher's improved bee-hive, for affording 
the most effectual security against the ravages of the bee-moth, 
and keeping the bees dry and comfortable during winter. 

Apparatus for transferring Bees. Dr. Barbour's apparatus for 
removing bees with great facility from one hive to another, 
without destroying the bees, injuring the honey or the young 
bees that are in the cells, as they can be transferred to the 
new bee-hive without difficulty, and the colony increased if 
desired. 

Hay Presses. Since bundle hay has become an article of 
great merchandise, much use is made of the hay press. There 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 359 

is great improvement in this article, by which hay is pressed 
much closer and harder. 

HalVs Patent Hay Rakes. These rakes are made in a very 
superior manner to any thing of the kind we have ever seen, 
and there is as much improvement made in this article as any 
one article in use. 



FARMER'S CALENDAR. 



The following calendar is intended merely as an agricultu- 
ral prompter, noting that certain kinds of work should be per- 
formed about the time in the year specified at the head of each 
article. The figures refer to the pages in this little volume, in 
which farther directions may be found relative to the opera- 
tions which the season in general demands from the diligent, 
correct, and careful cultivator. 

' At the beginning of every month, a good farmer, whether 
he has or has not a book of this sort, is obliged to reflect on 
the work he has to perform in that month : he ought to foresee 
the whole at once, or it is impossible that he should miike due 
provision for its performance. I leave it to any one to judge, 
if such an estimate of monthly business can be gained so easi- 
ly without such an assistance to the memory ao is afforded by 
such a calendar ; and even if such a work but once in a year 
gives intimatioix of some important work which might other- 
wise have been forgotten, its worth must be acknowledged.'* 

The directions in the following pages are intended for the 
New England states, or about the latitude of forty-two degrees 
north, and the vicinity, or a small elevation above the sea. 
Allowance, however, stiould be made for height above the sea, 
as well as for situation north or south of any particular lati- 
tude ; but we believe it not possible to state with any near ap- 
proach to precision what such allowance should be. The na- 
ture of the soil, the aspect, the exposure, the forwardness or 
backwardness, or what may be styled the general character 
of the season, are all to be regarded. We will, therefore, not 
claim precision, where accuracy is not attainable. * Calen- 
dars,' as Loudon has well observed, ' should be considered as 
remembrancers, never as directories.' 

JANUARY. 

Stock. If cattle are fed with straw, it should be done with 
necessary attentions and limitations. The celebrated Arthur 
Young observed, that ' the best farmers in Norfolk are gene- 

* Voung's British Farmer's Calendar. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 361 

rally agreed that cattle should eat no straw, unless it be cut in- 
to chaff mixed with hay ; but, on the contrary, that they should 
be fed with something better, and have the straw thrown under 
them to be trodden into dung:' and I am much inclined to be- 
lieve, that in most, if not in all cases, this maxim will prove a 
just one. See that your cows are of the best breed. Page 40. 
Give tht m roots as well as hay, and they will give you more 
than an equivalent in milk for their extra keep. Pages 42, 43. 
Provide pure water for your milch cows, and not oblige them 
to go a mile, more or less, after it, manuring the highway, and 
running the gauntlet of dogs, teams, the horse and his rider, 
the sleigh and its driver, with more annoyances than Buona- 
parte met with in his retreat from Moscow. See also that the 
master-beagts do not tyrannize over their weaker brethren, 
and if any are inclined to domineer, take them into close custo- 
dy, and deprive them of the liberty of the yard, till they will 
give indemnity for the past, and security for the future. Cut 
or chaff your hay, straM^, corn-tops, bottoms, &c., with one of 
WiUis' or some other straw cutter, to be found at Newell's 
agricultural warehouse, No. 52, North Market street, Boston, 
or some other place. You may also make use of colonel Jaques' 
mixtui r, {ndge 51,) without charge for the prescription. If you 
give your cows good hay, roots, and comfortable lodging, you 
may make as good butter in winter as in summer, and become 
rich by sending to market the product of your dairy. Pages 
55, 89, 90, ccC. 

FEBRUARY. 

Attend particularly to cows which have calved, or are about 
to calve, as well as to their offspring. You know, or should 
know, what time your cows may be expected to produce their 
young, by means pointed out page 45, where you may find a 
recipe for those cows which need to be doctored, that they may 
stop giving milk. You will find observations on rearing and 
fattening calves, pages 57, &c. to page 64. Your ewes and 
lambs will now require that care and attention which is indis- 
pensable to make sheep husbandry profitable. Page 222. The 
way to doctor lambs to advantage is to give good food, and a 
plenty of it, to their mothers. Half a gill of Indian corn a day 
to each ewe before yeaning, and about two quarts per day of 
potatoes, turnips, or other roots, when they have lambs to 
nurse, will make your sheep and lambs healthy, as well as 
their owner wealthy. But if you half starve your sheep, you 
will quite kill your lambs. You will continue to cut, split, and 
pile wood in your wood-house, till you have enough to last 
at least two years. It is very bad economy to be obliged to 
leave your work in haying or harvesting to draw every now 
and then a little green wood to cook with, which is about as fit 
for that purpose as a brickbat for a pincushion, or a lump of 
ice for a warming-pan. 
31 



362 THE COIVIPLETE FARMER 






MARCH. 

You may sow grass seed either as soon as the snow is off 
the ground, or, as some say, in August or September. You may 
see the question relative to the time for this purpose discussed, 
pages 25, 26. Be sure to use seed enough, say about twelve 
pounds of clover and one peck of herd's grass [timothy] to the 
acre. Page 26. If you did not sow grass seed in autumn with 
winter grain, you may now sow it, and even harrow it in. 
Though a few plants will be torn up, the grain will on the whole 
receive benefit from being harrowed in the spring. Before the 
spring work presses hard upon you, it will be well to employ 
your boys under your superintendence to train your steers or 
calves and colts to the yoke, saddle, or harness, for which you 
may see some excellent directions by Mr. James Walker, page 
66. Top-dress winter grain. Top-dressings should not be 
used in the fall for winter grain, because they would be apt to 
make the young plants come forward too fast, and be the more 
liable to be winter-killed. Page 187. Attend to fences, page 
214, and to drains. Page 296. By often changing the direc- 
tion of yriiir water-courses, you may render your mowing even, 
and prevtiit one part from becoming too rank and lodging be- 
fore the other part is fit to cut. 

APRIL. 

Ploughing. Light sandy soils had better be ploughed in the«| 
spring," and not late in autumn, lest they become too porous" 
and are washed away by the rains and floods of fall and 
winter. For general rules on this subject, see page 281, &c. 
It is best to sow spring wheat as soon as it can well be got 
into the ground. The soil and preparation should be the same 
as for winter wheat. Page 112. Sow barley as soon as the 
ground is sufficiently dry. Page 141. Sow oats. Page 138. 
Spring rye is cultivated in the same manner as winter rye. 
Page 130. Field peas as well as garden peas make an excel- 
lent crop. Page 155. Beans are also highly worth the judi- 
cious cultivator's particular attention. Page 160. Plant some 
potatoes of an early sort on early ground, to be used in July 
and August as food for your hogs, that you may commence fat- 
tening them early in the season. Page 271. Potatoes in small 
quantities at a time are good food for horses and oxen, as well 
as most other animals, especially in spring. They will go far- 
ther if steamed or boiled, but when given raw they are useful 
as well for physic as for food, being^of a laxative and cooling 
quality. It is now about the time to sow flax, page 104, and 
hemp. Page 94. Every tool, utensil, &c. which will be want- 
ed for the labors of the season, should now (if not done before) 
be critically inspected, thoroughly repaired, and such new ones 
of the best quality added as will probably be needed. We know 
of no place where every want of that kind can be better sup- 
plied than at the agricultural warehouse, No. 52, North Market 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 363 

street, Boston, owned by J. R. Newell ; connected with which 
is the seed store of G. C. Barrett, where may be procured the 
best of seeds both for garden and field culture. 

MAT. 

Attend to you-r pastures. Do not turn cattle into pasture 
ground too early in the spring-, but let the grass have a chance 
to start a little before it is bitten close to the soil. If your 
pastures are large, it will be good economy to divide them as 
stated page 300. Cleanse your cellars, as well as the rest of 
your premises, from all putrescent and other offensive and un- 
wholesome substances. Plant Indian corn as soon as the 
leaves of the white oak are as big as the ears of a mouse. 
Page 28. .Not only Indian corn, but peas, oats, buckwheat, 
and probably most other seeds, are benefited by wetting them 
in water just before sowing, and rolling them in plaster. Plant 
potatoes for your principal crop. Page 271. Sow millet. 
Page 145. Sow lucerne on land thoroughly prepared, and 
keep it free from weeds. Page 19. Declare war against in- 
sects. Page 317. The artillery for the engagement may be 
elder juice, or decoction of elder, especially of the dwarf kind, 
decoction of tobacco, quicklime, hme-water, soot, unleached 
ashes, strong lye, tar or turpentine water, soap-suds, &c. Dis- 
solve about Wo pounds of potash in seven quarts of water, 
and apply the solution to your fruit-trees with a painter's 
r:>h, taking care not to touch the leaves or buds. A lot of 
land well stocked with clover is wanted by every good cultiva- 
tor for pasturing swine. Page 167. 

JUNE. 

Summer made Manure demands attention. Most farmers 
yard their cows at night through the summer; their manure 
should be collected into a heap,"in some convenient part of the 
barn-yard, to prevent its being wasted by the sun and rains. A 
few minutes' attention in the morning, when the cows are turn- 
ed out to pasture, would collect a heap of several loads in a 
season, ready for your grass grounds in autumn. Dress your 
Indian corn and potatoes, thoroughly extirpating w^eeds, and 
please to place a handful of ashes'br plaster, or a mixture of 
both, on your hills of corn and potatoes. These substances are 
commonly applied before the first or second hoeing. But ashes 
or quickUme (which is also an excellent application for corn) 
will have a better effect in preventing worms if laid on before 
the corn is up. Be careful to save all your soap-suds after 
each washing, as they answer an excellent purpose when ap- 
plied to fruit-trees, both as manure and as an antidote to in- 
sects. ' Plaster or live ashes sown upon your pasture grounds, 
will not only repay a handsome profit by increasing the value 
of your feed by bringing in the finer grasses, such as white 
clover, &c., but will "greatly improve your lands for a potato 



364 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

fallow, and a succeeding wheat crop, whenever you may wish 
to take advantage of a routine of crops.' 

JULY. 

Hmj-malang. Page 288. Make as much of your hay as possi- 
ble in the early part of the season, as there is at that time a 
greater probability of your being favored with fair weather. 
More rain falls on an average in the latter part of summer, or 
after the 15th of July, than before. If the weather is so un- 
favorable that hay cannot be thoroughly cured, the application 
of from four to eight quarts of salt to the ton is recommended. | 
In this way it can be saved in a much greener state, and the j 
benefit derived from the salt is many times its value. Ano-| 
ther good method of saving green or wet hay, is that of mixing*' 
layers of dry straw in the mow or stack. Thus the strength 
of the grass is absorbed by the straw, and the cattle will eager- 
ly devour the mixture. 

Harvesting. Page 293. The time in which your grain crop 
should be cut, is when the straw begins to shrink, and becomes 
white about half an inch below the ear; but if a blight or rust 
has struck wheat or rye, it is best to cut it immediately, even, 
if the grain be in the milky state. Barley, however, should 
stand till perfectly ripe. 

AUGUST. 

Please to attend in season to preserving your sheep from the 
cestrus ovis, or fly which causes worms in their heads. Page 
239. This may be done by keeping the noses of the animals 
constantly smirched with tar from the middle of August till the- 
latter part of September. In order to accomplish this, it has 
been recommended to mix a little fine salt with tar, and place 
it under cover, where the sheep can have access to it, and they 
will keep their noses sufficiently smirched with tar to prevent 
the insect from attacking them. Destroy thistles, which some 
say may be done by letting them grow till in full bloom, and 
then cutting them with a scythe about an inch above the sur- 
face of the ground. The stem being hollow, the rains and 
dews descend into the heart of the plant, and it soon dies. Se- 
lect the ripest and most plump seeds from such plants as are 
most forward and thrifty, and you will improve your breeds 
of vegetables by means similar to those which have been suc- 
cessful in improving the breeds of neat cattle, sheep, &c. As 
soon as your harvesting is finished, you will take advantage 
of this hot and dry weather to search your premises for mines 
of manure, such as peat, page 209, marl, page 205, mud, &c., 
which often gives unsuspected value to swamps. Now is also 
a good season to work at draining. Page 296. You may 
drain certain marshes on your premises, which will affojd you 
better soil than you now cultivate, cause your land to be more 
healthy, and the earth taken from the ditches will make valua- 
ble deposits in your cow-yard and pig-sty. 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 365 

SEPTEMBER. 

A correctly calculating cultivator will make even his hogs la- 
bor for a livelihood. Tiiis may be done by throwing into their 
pens potato-tops, weeds, brakes, turf, loam, &c., which these 
capital workmen will manufacture into manure of the first 
quality. Page 190. You cannot sow winter rye too early in 
September. If it be sowed early its roots will obtain such hold 
of the soil before winter, that they will not be liable to be 
thrown out, and killed by frost. Page 130. It may be sowed 
early to great advantage in order to yield green food for cattle 
and sheep, particularly^he latter, in the spring. Winter wheat, 
likewise, cannot be sowed too early in September. Page 112. 
Attend to the barn-yard, and see that it has a proper shape 
for a manure manufactory, as well as other accommodations, 
adapted to its various uses. Page 77. You may as well have 
a hole in your pocket, for the express purpose of losing your 
money, as a drain to lead away the wash of your farm-yard. 
True, it may spread over your grass ground, and be a source 
of some fertility to your premises, but the chance is that most 
of it will be lost in a highway, or neighboring stream. 

OCTOBER. 

Ploughing. Page 281. Stiff, hard, cloggy land intended to 
be tilled should be ploughed in autumn. "Fall ploughing saves 
time and labor in the spring, when cattle are weak, and the 
hurry of the work pecuUar to that season presses on the culti- 
vator. A light sandy soil, however, should not be disturbed by 
fall ploughing, but lie to settle and consolidate through the 
"Winter. Select your corn intended for planting next season 
from the field, culling fine, fair, sound ears from such stocks as 
produce two or more ears, taking the best of the bunch. Page 
32. You will consider well which is the best method of har- 
vesting corn, and adopt one of the methods mentioned by judge 
Buel. Page 31. If the husks and bottoms of your corn, when 
stowed away for winter, are sprinkled with a strong solution 
of salt in water, (taking care not to use such a quantity of the 
solution as to cause mould,) and when dealt out are cut fine 
with a straw cutter, they will make first-rate fodder. Do not 
feed hogs with hard corn without steeping, grindi-ng or boiling 
it. The grain will go much the farther for undergoing some 
or all of these operations, and if a due degree of fermentation is 
superadded, so much the better. 

NOVEMBER. 

In many situations it will be excellent management to rake 
up all the leaves of trees, and the mould which has been pro- 
duced by their decay, which can be procured at a reasonable 
expense, and cart and spread them in the barn-yard as a layer, 
to absorb the liquid manure from your cattle. Likewise it 
would be well to place quantities of them under cover, in situa- 
31* 



366 THE COMPLETE FARMER 

tions where you can easily obtain them in winter to use as 
litter to your stables, &c. They do not rot easily, but they 
serve the purpose of little sponges to imbibe and retain liquid 
manure, and by their use you^may supply your crops with 
much food for plants which would otherwise be lost. Attend, 
with diligence and punctuahty to the wants of the four-footed 
tenants of your barn, hog-sty, &c. Do not undertake to winter 
more stock than you have abundant means of providing for. 
When young animals are pinched for food at an early period 
of their growth, they never thrive so well afterwards, nor 
make so gpod stock. See that you have good stalls, stables, 
&c., page 248; cow-houses, page 45; a proper implement for 
cutting hay and straw, page 51 ; an apparatus for cooking 
food for cattle and swine, page 53. You may also carry out 
and spread compost, soot, ashes, &c., on such of your mowing 
grounds as stand in great need of manure. Though some say 
that the best time for top-dressing grass land is immediately 
after haying, any time will do when the ground is free from 
snow, and the grass not so high as to be injured by cattle's 
treading on it. 

DECEMBER. 

Woodland. We think that cultivators may derive advantage 
from attending to the observations by the Hon. John Welles, 
relative to wood-lots, the manner of cutting them over, &c. 
Page 316. We advise every farmer, and his help, &c. so to 
treat domestic animals that they may be tame and familiar. 
It is said of Bakewell, a famous English breeder of cattle, that 
by proper management he caused his stock to be very gentle. 
His bulls would stand still to be handled, and were driven from 
field to field with a small switch. His cattle were always fat, 
which he said was owing to the breed as well as keep. Coltf 
should also always be kept tame and familiar, and you may 
then train them to saddle or harness without danger or diffi- 
culty. Page 63. The farmer should obtain his year's stock of 
fuel as early in the season as possible, and before the depth of 
.snow in the wood-lands renders it difficult to traverse them by 
a team. You may, when the ground is frozen, cut and draw 
wood from swamps, which are inaccessible for cattle in warm 
weather. If you cut wood with a wish that the stumps should 
sprout, let it be after the fall of the leaf, and before the buds 
swell in the spring. [See Gen. Newhall's statement. New 
England Farmer vol. x. p. 230.] The Rev, Mr. EUiot wisely 
recommended, when bushy ground, full jf strong roots, is to 
be ditched, beginning the ditch in the winter, when the ground 
is frozen two or three inches deep. The surface may be chop- 
ped into pieces by a broad axe, with a long helve, and the ditch 
completed in warm weather. The farmer may, probably, hit 
on a good time for this work in December, when there happens 
to be no snow, and when it will not interfere with other farm- 



AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 367 

ing business. When the season has become so severe that 
little can be done abroad, much may be done relative to farm- 
ing operations, and other good works, by the fireside, in con- 
trivirg the proper course of crops for each field, settling ac- 
counts, reading useful and entertaining books, and laying the 
foundation, by mental culture, for the usefulness and respecta- 
bility of those who compv^^se the farmer^ s family . 



INDEX. 



Pag«. 

Agricultural Implements, 330 

Aphis, or Plant Louse, 324 

Apple-tree Borer, 326 

Ashes as Manure, 212 

Barley, 141 

harvesting of, 143,295 

Barns, 47, 74 

Barn-yards, 77 

Beans, 160 

Beets, field cultivation and preservation of, 255 to 2C4 

Birds, the folly and criminality of destroying, 306 

Bones, use of for manure, 213 

Buckwheat, 148 

Bushes, how to extirpate, 311 

Butter, how made and preserved, 81 

how made in winter, 89 

Calves, 57 to 63 

Canker-worm, 318 

Caterpillar, 322 

Cattle, 39 

Chaff-cutting, 50 

Chaff-cuttjr, 332 

Cheere, making, 91 to 94 

cleaning of, 92 

Stilton, how made, 93 

to prevent skippers in, 93 

to prevent having a bad flavor, 93 

Cheese Presses, 339 

Churn, Gault's Patent, 338 

Stone, 339 

Clover, 18 

on making into hay, 291 to 294 

Colts, 67, 254 

Cotton, 277 

Cooking Food for Cattle and Swine, 52 to 57 



370 INDEX. 



1 



Page. 

Cow-house, 45 

Cows, 41 

manner of milking, 41 

winter food for, 44 

working of, 44 

how treated when about to calve, 45 

how dried of their milk, 45 

Cultivators and Scarifiers, 337 

Curculio, 323 

Curd Mills 340 

Cut-worm, 325 

Dairy, 80 

Dirt Scraper, Davis' Patent, 340 

Drains, 296 

Eggs, how to choose at market, 306 

Ewtes and Lambs, 222 

Farmer's Calendar, 360 

Fences, 214 

Fiorin Grass, 20 

Flat-stalked Meadow Grass, 21 

Flax, 104 

Floating Fescue Grass, 21 

Food fermented for Neat Cattle, 48 

Fowls and Chickens, to fatten, 305 

Grain, 28 

Grain Cradles, 344 

Grasses, 15 

proper time for sowing, &c., 25,26 

Gypsum, 199 

Harrow, Chandler's improved, 336 

Harricott's Road, 337 

Harvesting, 293 

Oats, 295 

Hay-making, 288 

Hedges, 216 

Hemp, 94 

Herd's Grass, or Timothy, 20 

Hops, 150 

Horse, 240 

diseases of, 245 

stable for, 249 

Horse Rake, 341 

Indian Com, 28 to 39 

hoeing of in dry weather, 34 

pla iting or sowing for fodder, 36 

Insects, 317 

Irrigation, . 312 



INDEX. 371 

Page. 

Lactometers, 340 

Lambs and Ewes, 222 

Lice on Apple-trees, 326 

Lime, 191 

Lucerne, 19,22 

Mangel- Wurtzel, 255 

how preserved, 262 

Manures, 174 

liquid, 182 

for grass ground, 186 

how made from swine, 190 

bones useful for, 213 

articles used for, 212 

Marl, 205 

Meadow Foxtail, 16 

Milk for butter, &c 81 

Millet, 145 

Oats, 133 

harvesting of, 295 

J. Smith's crop of, 141 

Orchard Grass, 16 

Oxen, 64 

Pasture, 299 

Pasture Grasses, . 23 

Pea, 165 

insects in and diseases of, 159 

Pickering's Tree Brushes, 339 

Plaster of Paris, 199 

Ploughing, 281 

mode of by E. Phinney, Esq 287 

Ploughs, 335 

Potatoes 271 

Poultry, 303 

Pruning Shears, 341 

Rice, 149 

Rough Cock's Foot, or Orchard Grass, 16 

Ruta Baga 264 

Rye, 130 

Rye Grass, 18 

Sainfoin, 20 

Scarifiers and Cultivators, 337 

Scythes, Scythe Rifles, Scythe Snathes, 341 

Seed Sowers, 355 

Sheep, 218 

shearing of, 229 

disorders of, 234 

Slug- worm, 327 



372 



INDEX, 



Page. 

Smooth-Stalked Meadow Grass, 21 

Soils, 11 

Sows devouring their Offspring, 171 

Stable for horses, 248 

Straw Cutters 332 

Striped Bug, 329 

Sweet-scented Vernal Grass, 16 

Swine, 163 

use of coal in fattening, 170 

Tall Fescue Grass, 17 

Tall Oat Grass, 17 

Thrashing Machines, 331 

Timothy, or Herd's Grass, 20 

Tobacco, 279 

Turnips, English, 267 

Swedish, 264 

Upright Bent Grass, 21 

Wheat, 112 

preparation of for sowing, 117 

to prevent smut in, 117,118 

use of lime for, 120 

how to obtain new varieties of, 123 

rust or mildew in, 127 

the kind called Black Sea Wheat, 128 

Willis' Seed Sower, 355 

Wire-worm, 328 

Wood-land, 315 



3477 '* 



